by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Getting 13 strikeouts from three pitchers, Kansas City Kansas Community College came from behind in the middle innings for a 9-5 win over the Baker University junior varsity in Baldwin Monday.
The win boosted the Blue Devils’ record to 22-6 heading into a doubleheader at Fort Scott Thursday. The two teams will conclude their four-game series at KCKCC Saturday at 1 p.m.
Baker scored an unearned run in the first and then took a 4-0 lead in the second, scoring three runs on two walks and a pair of two-out singles off starter Jake Martin. Martin worked three innings, allowing four hits, striking out three and walking three.
Freshman Griffin Everitt tripled and doubled and drove in three runs and Troy Hoover doubled and singled to power the comeback.
The Blue Devils scored three times in the third on just one hit, Everitt’s two-out, two-run double with the bases loaded after three walks and a third strike passed ball. Trailing 5-3 in the fifth, Everitt tied the game with a run-scoring triple following a walk, single by Jose Sosa and a run-scoring passed ball.
Hoover ignited KCKCC’s winning two-run rally in the sixth with a leadoff double. After a pair of walks loaded the bases, Traice Harter and Kevin Santiago delivered sacrifice flies. Hoover singled in the Blue Devils’ eighth run in the seventh and scored on Christopher Viera’s single.
Sophomore Hunter Paxton and freshman Zavier Morin allowed just one unearned the final six innings. Paxton got the win, scattering five hits, striking out five and walking none while Morin struck out five and allowed one hit in two innings.