by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
The Kansas City Kansas Community College Blue Devils headed south Thursday for a doubleheader to ready for the 2019 Jayhawk Conference season.
Playing at the U.S. Baseball Stadium in Springfield, Missouri, the Blue Devils blanked State Fair 8-0 behind the pitching of Carlos Soto and then dropped a 5-4 decision to Indian Hills Community College of Ottumwa, Iowa.
On Sunday, KCKCC (2-5) will meet State Fair again in a 1 p.m. doubleheader that will be played on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. If weather permits, the home opener will come Tuesday against William Jewell at 2 p.m.
Soto was nearly flawless in blanking State Fair, allowing only a two-out single in the third inning while striking out six and walking two. Max Storch finished up, walking one and strike out one.
The Blue Devil defense backed Soto with errorless play that included an outstanding catch in leftfield by Tyler Henry and a double play started by Brady Holder at second base.
“Soto had an outstanding performance,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “He wanted to finish the game but this early in the season we didn’t want to stretch him out. Also, it was a chance to get Storch an inning of work.”
Tyler Henry tripled twice and Kemper Bednar doubled and singled to pace a 9-hit KCKCC attack. Scoreless through three innings, the Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Jose Sosa led off with a single and after walk, scored on a passed ball and Henry followed with his first triple.
The Blue Devils put the game out of reach in the fifth, scoring six runs on six hits. Consecutive singles by Eduardo Acosta, Brady Holder and Traice Harter scored one run and after two walks, JT Goodfellow singled in two more. The final three runs came on a Matt Schrick sacrifice fly, Henry’s second triple and a double by Bednar.
KCKCC rallied for two runs in the top of the fifth inning to tie Indian Hills 4-4 only to give up an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth in the 5-4 loss. The Blue Devils put two runners on base in each of the last two innings but could not score.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot and they took advantage of it,” Goldbeck said.
KCKCC tied the game in the fifth on a leadoff triple by Bednar, three walks and a run-scoring single by Eric Hinostroza. Bednar also drove in the game’s first run with a bunt single in the second and doubles by Holder and Hinostroza made it 2-0 in the third.
Indian Hills bunched four hits for four runs in the fourth inning to take a 4-2 lead. Back-to-back triples with two out and a run-scoring single scored the runs off Osvaldo Mendez, who gave up seven hits in five innings, striking out six and walking two. Jose Amaro pitched a scoreless sixth, striking out one.
Traice Harter’s single in the sixth kept a 7-game hitting streak intact while KCKCC started the seventh with a single by Sosa and a walk.