by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
Kansas City Kansas Community College will be armed with a .320 batting average in its bid to take down the Goliath of Jayhawk Conference baseball in opening round play of the NJCAA Division I Regional tournament in Salina Thursday.
The Blue Devils open play at 4 p.m. against Cowley College, winner of the last four Jayhawk East championships and two of the last three regional titles.
Colby and Butler County will meet in Thursday’s first game with the two losing teams meeting at 7 p.m. All games are scheduled to be streamed on the KJCCC website at www.kjccc.org/.
KCKCC (30-18) will take a 5-game winning streak into the regional after sweeping the sub-regional in Liberal in just three games.
Ranked No. 5 nationally, Cowley won the Jayhawk East with a 27-5 record and is 43-8 overall. Thursday’s game will be the fifth between the two teams. The Blue Devils won the first game 5-2, dropped the final three 11-1, 11-8 and 4-0.
“This team has overcome a lot,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “We were the No. 3 seed in the sub-regional and had the longest drive (six hours). We lost two guys we thought would hit in the middle of the lineup (Pablo Sanchez and Rayden Vader) the first week of the season due to injuries. And we were shut down two weeks by the COVID and had four pitchers miss time so I am very proud of what this team has overcome and achieved.”
Logan Barnard, a lefthander from Lansing who is unbeaten (4-0 ) with a 4.96 earned run average, will get the start against the Tigers.
“After that it will be game to game,” said Goldbeck, most likely from a trio of Chase Terrell (6-1) of Bonner Springs, Parker Weddle (4-4) of St. Joseph and southpaw Tre Simmons (5-1) of Olathe West.
Terrell, who has a 3.86 ERA, inherited a 6-0 deficit before pitching seven strong innings of relief in the 16-9 sub-regional win over Cloud; Simmons allowed just five hits in six innings in KCKCC’s 5-2 win over Cowley; and Waddle leads the team in complete games and strikeouts (74). Hunter Cashero is the closer, leading the team in saves (6), appearances (20) and ERA (2.93) despite only a 1-3 record.
The Blue Devils boast six players hitting .331 or better led by second baseman Cole Slibowski, who is hitting a hearty .417 with 25 RBI from the leadoff spot. First baseman Brendyn Bard of Piper is next at .375 followed by centerfielder Ray Paniagua of Blue Springs, 371; Lansing rightfielder Caleb Adams, 345; shortstop Cole Dawson, 337; and Hays third baseman Palmer Hutchison, 331.
Two of the Blue Devils rank in the top 10 nationally. Paniagua leads the nation in triples with 10 and is second on the team in RBI (50) and slugging percentage (.653); Hutchison is tied for seventh in home runs with 19 and leads the Blue Devils in RBI (61) and slugging (.717). Other RBI leaders are Adams (47), Dawson (43) and Bard (40). Adams leads in stolen bases with 25 followed by Slibowski and Dawson with 15 each.
Catcher Camden Karlin, of Lawrence, whose single drove in the winning run in a 12-11 win over Neosho Sunday, is hitting .266; leftfielder Beau Grable of St. James, .244; and designated hitter Brock Stewart of Gardner, 235.
Cowley, which has won 11 of its last 12 games, has a team batting average of .361 and scored 568 runs, an average of more than 11 runs a game. The Tigers have also blasted 61 home runs while the pitching staff has a 5.03 ERA.
Winning teams is nothing new for Cowley. Since 1995, the Tigers have won 20 of 26 East Division championships, nine regional championships and two national titles (1997-98). Most recently, Cowley finished sixth in the NJCAA in 2019; third in 2017.