by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s baseball team got back above the .500 mark with a much-needed sweep of Highland Community College Thursday.
The Blue Devils needed just five innings for an opening 13-3 win, then had to go nine innings for a 6-3 victory in the nightcap. The wins stretched KCKCC’s winning streak to four following 14-7 and 18-0 wins over Rockhurst junior varsity Tuesday, a sweep that snapped a six-game losing skid.
KCKCC wraps up its four-game series Saturday at Highland after Thursday’s wins kept the Blue Devils in the thick of the fight for a first division finish in the Jayhawk East Conference race. At 7-7, the Blue Devils are locked into a battle with Allen County (7-5), Coffeyville (8-8) and Fort Scott (8-10) for third place. Johnson County (17-1) and Cowley College (15-3), teams the Blue Devils were 1-3 against, lead the conference.
Sophomore Palmer Hutchinson swung the big bat in the 13-3 win over Highland, driving in seven runs with a grand slam home run, a two-run home run and a sacrifice fly.
Hutchinson’s 4-run blast in the second gave KCKCC a 9-3 lead and his 2-run bomb to left-center came in a 4-run fourth that also included singles by Caleb Adams, Brendyn Bard, Jaylon Johnson and Camden Karlin.
Raymond Paniagua gave KCKCC a 3-2 lead in the first with a 2-run double. The Blue Devils scored five times in the inning that also included singles by Johnson and Beau Grable and Hutchinson’s sacrifice fly,
Sophomore Park Weddle (3-3) got the pitching win, giving up five hits, walking four and striking out two. After giving up two runs in the first, Weddle returned 12 of the next 13 Scottie hitters and struck out four in a row in one stretch.
The Blue Devils backed Lansing lefthander Logan Barnard with three innings of scoreless relief in the 6-3 nightcap. Barnard (2-1) worked six innings, allowing three runs on five hits and striking out four before Chase Terrell pitched one inning of relief and Eli Tormes two, each giving up one hit.
Ray Paniagua led a 9-hit attack, driving in two runs with a triple and double, Cole Dawson and Brendyn Bard added a pair of singles. Paniagua tripled in KCKCC’s first run in the first and drove in the fifth run with a sacrifice fly in the third. The Blue Devils scored three runs in the second on a single by Caleb Troutt, two walks and Dawson’s 2-run single.
The Blue Devils pounded out 31 hits in 14-7 and 18-0 wins at Rockhurst. Tre Simmons (3-1) allowed five hits and two runs before Britt Owens finished up in the opener. Gabriel Ramos (1-2) allowed just two hits in six innings in the nightcap. Terrell and Tormes each pitched one inning of hitless relief; Hunter Cashero gave up Rockhurst’s third hit in the ninth.
Caleb Adams had three hits; Sole Silbowski and Bard two each and Beau Grable tripled in the first game. Five Blue Devils had a least two hits in the second game led by Paniagua, who drove in four runs with a double and single, and Adams, who doubled and singled and drove in three. Caleb Brown, Ethan Beagle and Dawson each added two hits and Hardy Bergman doubled to lead a 19-hit attack.