by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
A day that had started out so well for Kansas City Kansas Community College baseball turned into heartbreak at No. 5 ranked Cowley College Saturday.
Tied 4-4 in a suspended game, the Blue Devils wasted no time in breaking the deadlock, scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth for a 5-4 win. However, it was the Tigers who would take advantage of an unearned run in the bottom of the eighth for a 7-6 win in the middle game of the tripleheader and then come from behind in the bottom of the seventh for a 5-4 nightcap win.
“Two evenly matched teams with all three games won by the team with the last at bat,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “When you play close games like that, it usually comes down to the little things and Cowley just made a couple of more plays than we did.”
The losses left the Blue Devils 9-7 heading into a single game against State Fair in Sedalia, Mo., Tuesday at 2 p.m. before resuming Jayhawk Conference at Coffeyville Thursday. KCKCC then returns home Saturday to play host to Coffeyville in a twin bill starting at 1 p.m.
Easton Fortuna, a sophomore from Park Hill South, led off the bottom of the eighth inning of the suspended game with a double, moved up to third and scored the game-winning run on a two-out passed ball. The run made a winner out of freshman reliever Luke Ostenson.
The Blue Devils got two home runs from freshman Alex Phillips and one from Rorey Combs only to have Cowley rally from a 4-1 deficit in the Tigers’ 7-6 win. Tied 6-6 in the eighth, KCKCC reliever Colton Kenagy got a ground ball double play to start the inning only to have the Tigers score the game-winner on back-to-back two-out errors.
Phillips gave the Blue Devils a 3-0 lead in the first inning. After a hit batsman and sacrifice, Drew Holtgrieve singled in one run and Phillips followed with a two-run homer to center, then put KCKCC ahead 4-1 in third with his second homer of the game. Cowley pulled even 4-4 with three runs in the fourth but Combs put the Blue Devils back in front with a home run in the fifth.
Cowley went back ahead with single runs in the fifth and sixth and it took a two-out single by Chase Redick in the top of the seventh to tie it and force extra innings. Redick and Phillips each had two hits as the Blue Devils were outhit 10-8.
The Blue Devils took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth in the nightcap. Tyler Pittman, who had pulled KCKCC even 3-3 with a home run in the top of the sixth, led off the eighth with a double and scored the go-ahead run on Redick’s squeeze bunt.
Julian Rivera, who came on in the fifth inning and pitched three hitless innings, gave up only two singles but both came after a leadoff walk in the eighth. The second by Dalton Lanpher tied the game and Ross Messina won it with a sacrifice fly to center.
Cowley managed just four hits in the game but all figured in the scoring. A double, two hit batsmen and a walk scored one run and Dalton Dinkel drove in two more with a two-out single. KCKCC cut the deficit to 4-3 with two runs in the third, both coming on a single by Phillips after a single by Pittman and a walk.