by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Sweeping Labette in opening Jayhawk Conference action on the road Thursday, Kansas City Kansas Community College returns home Sunday to open its home conference campaign.
A doubleheader with Labette, the games were originally scheduled for Saturday but were pushed back a day in hopes of better weather. First pitch will come at 1 p.m.
The Blue Devils made quick work of Thursday’s opener against Labette, winning 11-1 in just five innings behind the pitching of Orlando Ortiz and then riding the bat of catcher Griffin Everett to a 7-5 9-inning win in the nightcap in games played on the campus of Pittsburg State University. The wins were the sixth and seventh in a row for the Blue Devils, who improved to 9-5.
A freshman from Lincoln, Nebraska, Everett drove in four runs with a single, double and home run in the 7-5 second game win. Everett’s two-run homer, the first of his college career, tied the game in the second inning and his two-run double in the fifth scored what proved to be the decisive runs.
Sophomore Carlos Soto (3-1) got the win with outstanding relief efforts from Max Storch and Jose Amaro.
Soto worked the first six innings, allowing four runs on four hits, walking two and striking out five. Storch struck out two in one inning of relief; Amaro got the save, allowing one hit and fanning two after coming on in the eighth with two on and none out.
Labette took a 2-0 lead in the first on a Drew White 2-run homer but Everett got that back with his two-run shot to center in the second and KCKCC went ahead to stay with two runs in the third. Doubles by Eric Hinostroza and Jose Sosa scored one run and Kevin Santiago singled in the second.
A single by Kaleb Harrison and a double by Eduardo Acosta made it 5-2 in the third and Everett added what proved to be the deciding runs with his two-run double following a Santiago single and a walk in the fifth.
Ortiz (3-0) allowed one run on five hits in the 11-1 opener, striking out six and walking two while the Blue Devils backed him with 11 hits and a 9-run third inning. Acosta drove in three runs with a pair of singles while Sosa tripled in a pair, Traice Harter and Tyler Henry doubled and singled and Santiago doubled.
The first nine Blue Devils to the plate reached base and scored in the 9-run third. A leadoff single by J.T. Goodfellow, double by Santiago and a single by Kemper Bednar scored the first run, a second crossed on back-to-back walks before Acosta and Harter each drove in a pair of runs with singles. Eric Hinostroza singled in the seventh run, Sosa tripled in another and then scored on Goodfellow’s ground ball.
The Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead in the first as Harter led off the game with a single and scored on Santiago’s sacrifice fly and Henry doubled to start the second and scored on Acosta’s first single before the Blue Devils blew the game open with the 9-run third inning.