by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College rebounded from a disappointing come-from-behind extra inning 5-4 loss with a 5-0 shutout at Fort Scott Wednesday.
Sophomore Carlos Soto of Kissimmee, Florida, turned in his best pitching performance of the season in blanking the Greyhounds in the second game.
The loss left the Blue Devils (12-2) in third place in the Jayhawk Conference standings behind Johnson County (8-0) and Cowley (7-1). Fort Scott (10-4) and Blue Devils will conclude their four-game series at KCKCC Sunday at 1 p.m.
Soto allowed just four hits, striking out seven, walking two and hitting three.
“He was toughest with men on base, stranding runners in every inning of the 7-inning nightcap. He really pitched well and mixed up his pitches,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said.
The Blue Devils (23-7) backed Soto with 12 hits including a double and two singles by Griffin Everett, three Jose Sosa singles and a Kemper Bednar double. KCKCC took a 1-0 lead in the first on singles by Traice Hartter, Kevin Santiago and Sosa’s bunt single for the RBI and then added three runs in the fourth.
After singles by Sosa, Everett and Jose Acosta loaded the bases, Tyler Henry singled in one run, Matt Schrick’s sacrifice fly scored a second and Bednar doubled in the third. Sosa’s third hit scored the Blue Devils final run in the seventh.
The Blue Devils took a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth in the opener on a two-out double by Eric Hinostroza after Schrick drew a walk only to have the Greyhounds score twice in the bottom of the inning off reliever Gaby Ramos. With one out, Fort Scott tied the game on a single, stolen base and single and then won it on an infield throwing error.
Orlando Ortiz pitched the first six innings, scattering nine hits while allowing three runs, one of which was unearned. He struck out seven, walked four and left nine men stranded on base. Hinostroza doubled twice and Acosta doubled and singled for four of KCKCC’s six hits.
Trailing 1-0, the Blue Devils tied the game in the second on an Acosta single and throwing error and then went ahead 3-1 in the third, scoring one run on a walk, single by Tyler Henry and a Schrick sacrifice fly and the second on Acosta’s double. Fort Scott got a run back in the fifth on a two-out double and then tied it in the sixth on a throwing error. The Greyhounds had a chance to take the lead with a runner on third and no one out but Ortiz pitched out of the jam.
“It’s tough to beat a good team on the road,” Goldbeck said. “We made a couple of errors that costs us runs but in all fairness, the guys were trying to make plays.”