by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College opened its home baseball season in rousing fashion Friday, pounding out 22 hits in a 15-1 thumping of Northeast Nebraska.
The two teams meet in a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon but a twin bill previously scheduled for Sunday has been canceled.
The Blue Devils (3-2) scored in every inning against Northeast as seven Blue Devils had at least two hits. Beneficiary of the big attack was sophomore lefthander Orvaldo Mendez (2-0), who gave up just three hits and one run in four innings. He struck out four, walked three.
Leadoff hitter Seth Kenagy set the tone for the assault, rapping out four hits in four trips to the plate. Jose Sosa, Griffin Everitt and Tyler Henry contributed three hits each and Eduardo Acosta, Caleb Adams and Raymond Paniagua two apiece.
Sosa had the lone home run of the day, a 2-run shot in the fifth, while Henry and Palmer Hutchinson doubled for the only other extra base hits. Sosa and Everitt each drove three runs and Kenagy two.
The Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead in the first on a single by Kenagy, Henry’s double and singles by Sosa and Trey Hoover and added four runs in the second on six straight hits – singles by Paniagua, Kenagy, Everitt, Acosta, Henry and Sosa.
Sosa’s 2-run home run highlighted KCKCC’s other big inning, a 5-run fifth that was capped by a 2-run single by Kenagy and an RBI hit by Everitt.
Parker Weddle and Josiah Crowley closed out the win with scoreless mound appearances. Weddle gave up two hits and struck out two in two innings while Crowley gave up one hit in the seventh.