by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
The good news is that Kansas City Kansas Community College will be host to first round Region VI baseball playoffs.
That was assured Saturday when the Blue Devils divided a doubleheader at Fort Scott, winning the opener 9-2 but losing the nightcap 6-5. Just who the Blue Devils will play in the best-of-three series May 7-8 is a whole different matter. A Jayhawk Conference championship is still within reach but KCKCC could also tumble all the way to fourth.
It all begins Thursday when the Blue Devils (22-10) play host to No. 4 ranked Neosho County (25-7) in the final four-game series of the season starting at 1 p.m. Jayhawk play will then end Saturday with a twin bill against Neosho at Chanute.
A sweep would give KCKCC the league championship but even a split could drop the Blue Devils to fourth depending how their closest pursuers fare. Johnson County (21-11) closes against Fort Scott (16-16) while Cowley (21-11) clashes with Allen County (18-14).
“It’s going to be an uphill battle but going into the final week of the season having a chance to win the conference championship is going to make it fun,” said KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck, whose Blue Devils will play a non-conference game at William Jewell JV Tuesday.
Jacob Purl ran his record to 8-1 in the 9-2 opener, allowing just five hits and two runs while striking out five and walking three, while Travis Stroup led a 12-hit attack with three hits highlighted by his ninth and 10th home runs of the season. Conor Behrens also had three hits including a pair of doubles and Ryan Fisher tripled and singled as each drove in two runs.
Stroup put the Blue Devils in front to stay with a 2-run home run in the first following a Behrens’ double and then crushed another 2-run shot following a Behrens’ single in a 4-run sixth inning. KCKCC opened a 5-0 lead in the third, scoring three times on a single by Albert Woodard, an RBI double by Behrens and singles by Stroup and Drew Holtgrieve sandwiched around a Fisher sacrifice fly. In addition to Stroup’s home run in the sixth, KCKCC got run-scoring singles from Behrens and Fisher.
Fort Scott rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh for the 6-5 win in the nightcap. After the Greyhounds scored the tying run on two singles and a hit batsman, Danny Crews delivered a 2-out, 2-run single off Avery Fliger. It made Fliger the losing pitcher for the first time in eight decisions.
After Fort Scott had taken a 1-0 lead against starter Tanner Vestal in the first, KCKCC tied the game in the third on hits by Daulton Smith and Easton Fortuna and a ground ball and then went ahead 3-1 in the fourth on consecutive singles by Stroup, Eli Lovell and Fisher and Chase Redick’s ground ball. Gabe Franklin’s home run triggered a game-tying 2-run Greyhound fourth inning but the Blue Devils went back ahead 4-3 on back-to-back doubles by Stroup and Lovell in the sixth.
A Conor Behrens’ home run, his eighth of the season, cut Fort Scott’s lead to 6-5 in the eighth but Nick Sloan struck out four of the other six batters he faced in the final two innings.