by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College went from worst to best in one of the wildest finishes in Blue Devil baseball history Thursday.
The worst came in a 14-3 opening game loss to arch-rival Johnson County. The best came when freshman Tyler Henry erased two late-inning Cavalier rallies with a dramatic two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning for a 13-12 win that was right out of a Hollywood script.
The Blue Devils had gone into the ninth inning with a 10-7 lead only to have JCCC tie it on Jacob Owens’ wind-blown 3-run home run with two outs and then went ahead 12-10 on Landen Wood’s 2-run homer to start the 10th inning.
KCKCC cut the lead to 12-11 on an Eric Hinostroza single and one-out Jose Sosa double before hard-throwing Cam Wynne came on in relief to register a second out strikeout. His first pitch didn’t get past Henry, who lofted a shot over the barrier in left-center and set off a wild post-game celebration.
It was the second game-winner in less than two weeks for Henry, an outfielder from Gardner-Edgerton, who hit a game-tying 3-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning and a game-winning double in the bottom of the ninth in a 4-3 win over Fort Scott March 31.
“Most guys don’t have a walk-off all season and Tyler has two – and almost had a third one against Neosho,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “Hinostroza had a big hit to start the 10th. He’s done that two or three times this year. We could have rolled over after the first game, the first game we really didn’t have a chance to win all season.”
KCKCC’s other three league losses were by scores of 3-1, 14-11 and 5-4 in extra innings.
The win kept the Blue Devils in the thick of the Jayhawk Conference race as the two teams square off again Saturday in Overland Park at 1 p.m.
KCKCC (18-4) trails Cowley College (16-2) and JCCC (15-3) but both of those teams have four more games remaining than the Blue Devils. In addition, they play each other while KCKCC meets Cowley next week.
The Blue Devils pounded out 19 hits in the second game win. Henry, Kemper Bednar, Sosa and Hinosroza had three each and Kevin Santiago and Jose Acosta two apiece. Henry added a double to his home run and drove in five runs; Bednar drove in four with a single, double and triple.
All were needed because the Cavaliers made the most of a blustery wind blowing to left field to blast five home runs which accounted for 11 of their 12 runs. Carlos Soto gave up three homers in four innings while Gaby Ramos allowed Owens’ game-tying home run in the ninth after holding JCCC scoreless for 4 2/3 innings of relief. Zavier Morin got the win despite giving up Wood’s go-ahead homer in the 10th.
“Gaby really pitched well,” Goldbeck said. “On a normal day, the home run would have gone foul but the wind blew it in. The walk just before the home run really hurt. But Johnson County’s a really good team.”
Trailing 2-0 in the first inning, the Blue Devils loaded the bases on a Traice Hartter single and two walks. Sosa’s single scored one run and Bednar drove in two more with a two-out single. Hinostroza tripled and scored on Santiago’s 2-out single in the second and the Blue Devils went ahead 7-3 with a 3-run third. J.T. Goodfellow doubled and scored on a Henry single, Bednar tripled and Matt Schrick singled for the other runs. The final three runs came in the sixth on singles by Hinostroza and Santiago, a 2-run double by Henry and a Bednar double.
JCCC made quick work of the 5-inning opener, collecting 14 hits including six for extra bases. Anthony Slaughter opened the scoring with a grand slam home run following a single and two walks in the third inning and the Cavaliers made it 8-0 in the fourth, scoring four times with two triples and a double.
The Blue Devils were limited to four hits by Zachery Ebert. Henry singled in a pair of runs in the fourth and hits by Eduardo Acosta and Santiago accounted for a run in the fifth.