by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Easily over its final pre-Jayhawk Conference hurdle Tuesday, the Blue Devils open the conference season Thursday, playing host to the team to beat.
Ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA DI rankings and the defending Jayhawk East champion, Cowley College (10-4) comes to KCKCC for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
The Blue Devils improved their non-conference record to 10-3 with a 19-1 trouncing of State Fair in Sedalia Tuesday.
The Blue Devils pounded out 15 hits in support of freshman William Simmons’ strong pitching debut. A southpaw from Olathe West, Simmons allowed just one run on four hits in seven innings. He struck out three, walked one before Parker Weddle and Chase Terrell each pitched an inning of hitless relief.
Sophomore Jose Sosa led the KCKCC offensively, rapping out four hits and driving in five runs, four on a grand slam home run that capped a 9-run ninth inning.
Trey Hoover and Griffin Everitt also homered, Palmer Hutchinson singled and doubled, Zayne Morrow singled twice and Tyler Henry doubled in an attack that featured six extra base hits.
State Fair took a 1-0 lead in the first and only trailed 3-1 after six innings.
A double by Hutchinson and a single by Morrow tied the game in the second and the Blue Devils went ahead 3-1 in the fifth on Eduardo Acosta’s two-out, two-run single.
The Blue Devils put the game out of reach with five runs in the seventh. Henry doubled in the first two, Sosa singled in a third and Hoover belted a 2-run homer.
Seth Kenagy singled and Everitt homered in the eighth.
Sosa doubled to start the 9-run ninth and finished it with his grand slam. The Blue Devils also benefited from hits by Raymond Paniagua, Hutchinson and Kade Chastain, two walks and two hit batsmen.