by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Pounding out 28 hits, Kansas City Kansas Community College stayed unbeaten in Jayhawk Conference play with 9-4 and 12-7 wins over Highland Sunday in games played on the Benedictine College campus in Atchison.
The sweep stretched the Blue Devils’ winning streak to 14 in a row and kept them atop the Jayhawk Conference with an 8-0 record.
Fort Scott (6-0) and Johnson County (4-0) are also unbeaten while Cowley College is 3-1.
Home Tuesday for games against Baker University junior varsity at 2 p.m., the Blue Devils (16-5) resume Jayhawk play Thursday when they play host to Allen County at 1 p.m.
The Blue Devils’ 28 hits were highlighted by eight extra base hits in each game.
Sophomore Kemper Bednar led the way with five hits including a triple and three doubles. Matt Schrick, Eric Hinostroza and Jose Sosa each had four hits in the two games and Everett Griffin tripled twice and doubled and J.T. Goodfellow homered in the second game.
Freshman lefthander Osvaldo Mendez allowed just two hits and no runs in six innings of the 9-4 opener.
He struck out four and walked six. Mendez faced only 13 hitters over the first four innings and had a no-hitter until the fifth.
“Mendez pitched around his walks and was very effective otherwise,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said.
Highland’s four runs, two of which were unearned, scored with two out in the bottom of the seventh off Hunter Paxton, who gave up two hits and struck out three.
The Blue Devils backed Mendoza with 10 hits. Goodfellow homered, Bednar doubled and tripled, Sosa doubled twice and Schrick drove in a pair of runs with a double and single. Doubles by Hinostroza and Tyler Henry rounded out the extra base assault.
KCKCC took a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Bednar started it with a triple and scored on Henry’s sacrifice fly and two more runs scored on a double by Schrick, error and wild pitch.
An error, Bednar’s double and Henry’s ground ball made it 4-0 in the third and Goodfellow belted a two-run home run in the fourth.
Henry doubled and scored on an error in the fifth and Schrick singled in two runs in the seventh after a double by Sosa and two walks loaded the bases.
Blue Devil pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts in the 12-7 nightcap. Sophomore Victor Gotay fanned nine in five innings. He gave up three runs on five hits and one walk. Gaby Ramos allowed just one run on three hits while striking out five in three innings before the Scotties scored three times in the ninth on four hits, two walks and an error off Jose Amaro.
In addition to Everett’s triple and two doubles, Eduardo Acosta and Bednar each doubled and singled twice and Hinostroza, Schrick and Henry had two hits apiece in the nightcap.
KCKCC took a 2-0 lead in the second on a double by Bednar, walk and run-scoring singles by Schrick and Acosta only to fall behind 3-2 in the third.
Everett’s double and an Acosta ground ball tied the game in the fourth and the Blue Devils went ahead to stay with three runs in the fifth. With two out, Sosa singled and Bednar doubled and both scored on Henry’s single and Everett scored Henry with a triple.
Doubles by Acosta and Hinostroza and a single by Sosa made it 8-3 in the sixth; Everett tripled and Schrick and Traice Harter each singled in runs in the seventh; and singles by Acosta and Hinostroza closed out the KCKCC scoring with a run in the ninth.
“A huge day with the bat from Kemper Bednar,” Goldbeck said. “J.T. Goodfellow had a big two-run home run in the fourth inning of the first game and Tyler Henry and Griffin Everett had big hits in the fifth to give us the lead in the second game. Outstanding pitching in both games. Gotay walked only one with nine strikeouts and Ramos walked none and struck out five in the second game. Once again a good team day and production throughout the lineup to go along with effective pitching.”