by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Seth Kenagy came to the rescue of a faltering Kansas City Kansas Community College defense in the nick of time Saturday.
In peril of letting a 9-0 lead get away at No. 3 ranked Cowley College, Kenagy’s unassisted game-ending double play in the bottom of the seventh preserved a 9-8 win, the Blue Devils’ third in four games with the defending Jayhawk East champions.
“The play of the year,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said of Kenagy, a freshman second baseman from Grover, Missouri.
“With runners on first and second and one out, they hit a line drive that might have gone to the wall and ended the game but Seth fully laid out to make a diving catch and crawled to second base to double off the runner,” Goldbeck said. “Just a great play when we really needed it most.”
Cowley rebounded for an 18-1 win in Saturday’s second game after KCKCC had won the first two games of the four-game set 7-5 and 14-8 at home Thursday.
The series left the Blue Devils 13-4 overall and in a second place tie behind Johnson County (4-0) in the Jayhawk Conference. KCKCC returns to action Tuesday with a single game at Maple Woods and then opens a four-game series with Labette in Parsons on Thursday.
The Blue Devils threatened to turn the opening game into a rout, surging to a 9-0 lead in the first two innings only to have the defense suddenly turn sour – six errors that made five of the Tigers’ eight runs unearned.
“We let one error turn into multiple errors and gave up five unearned runs in the fifth,” Goldbeck said. “We are going to make errors but how we respond to them can make the difference in winning or losing. We need the next guy to step up and make the next play.”
KCKCC jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first. After a leadoff single by Kenagy, Griffin Everitt tripled and scored on Jose Sosa’s ground ball. A 3-run home run by Trey Hoover and a 2-run Sosa single were the big blows in a 7-run second inning.
After a leadoff double by Tyler Henry, a walk and Raymond Paniagua’s single loaded the bases, Kenagy singled in a run, Everitt doubled in two and Hoover made it 8-0 with his 3-run homer. Eduardo Acosta singled and scored what proved to be the winning run on a 3-base outfield error. The hit also was the Blue Devils’ last as three Cowley pitchers held KCKCC hitless the final five innings.
Freshman Parker Weddle of Park Hill got the win, slamming the door after the Tigers had closed to 9-8 in the fifth. Coming on with two out in the fifth, Weddle left two runners on base with a strikeout of cleanup hitter Janson Reeder and finished with two scoreless innings.
Joseph Reyes worked the first 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three hits. Chase Terrell was the victim of four errors in the fifth, giving up two hits and five runs, all unearned.
Cowley scored in every inning in the 18-1 nightcap, rapping out 15 hits off four KCKCC hurlers. Tyler Henry homered in the fourth inning for the Blue Devils’ lone run. Paniagua singled twice and Kenagy and Everitt once each for the Blue Devil hits.
“A really good start to the conference season,” Goldbeck said. “It’s tough to win at their place. The infield is different, hard and fast, and we tried to prep our infielders on how to handle it. We had one error in the fourth, four in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the seventh, not a recipe to win down there. Glad we were able to get both games in at home on Thursday because darkness was coming on fast.”