by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s newest MO (method of operation) for baseball success: Get behind and then rally.
Overcoming 6-0 and 7-0 deficits in their first two games in the NJCAA Division I sub-regional in Liberal, the Blue Devils trailed Neosho County 8-6 in the eighth inning Sunday before rallying for a 9-8 win that wrapped up the championship and a berth in Friday’s four-team regional in Salina.
The win was the fifth in a row and boosted the Blue Devils’ record to 32-18 heading into a regional Friday that will determine the Jayhawk Conference representative in the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.
The Blue Devils reached the sub-regional tourney final by defeating Cloud County 16-9 after trailing 6-0 Friday and wiping out a 7-0 deficit in a wild come-from-behind 12-11 win over Neosho on Saturday. The Blue Devils’ opening foe in the regional is yet to be determined.
A misplayed bunt single by Camden Karlin was pivotal in KCKCC’s 3-run eighth inning Sunday. Cole Dawson led off the inning with a single and Brock Stewart reached on an error before Karlin’s bunt was thrown into right field to score Dawson. Beau Grable then tied it 8-8 with a sacrifice fly to center and Cole Slibowski drove in the game-winner with a one-out single to right. That brought on reliever Hunter Cashero, who set the Panthers down in order in the ninth.
Dawson drove in two runs with three singles; Ray Paniagua hammered a 2-run homer and singled; and Slibowski singled twice to pace a 10-hit Blue Devil attack.
Dawson put the Blue Devils in front 2-0 in the first with a 2-out, 2-run single after Neosho starter Drake LaRoche had given up three walks. The Panthers pulled even on an Ivan Witt home run in the third but Paniagua put KCKCC back in front 4-2 with his home run following a double by Brendyn Bard. However, Neosho scored twice in the fifth and sixth for a 6-5 lead.
The Blue Devils had scored a run in the fifth on Paniagua’s bunt single and Caleb Adams’ 2-out single and then tied it with an unearned run in the sixth on Slibowski’s single, again with two out. Neosho took its 8-6 lead in the eighth on a leadoff home run by Brett Wiemer and a pair of singles to set up KCKCC’s game-winning rally in the bottom of the inning.
Alan Mercado got the win, allowing five hits and four runs in three innings after southpaw Tre Simmons had pitched the first five frames, giving up five hits and four runs. He struck out four.