by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College will take a .314 batting average into opening NJCAA Region VI softball playoff action Saturday.
The No. 7 seeded Blue Devils (34-18) host No. 10 Cloud County (11-27) in a best-of-three series in the six-team Division II District D playoffs. Two games will be played Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m. with a third game if necessary to be played Sunday at noon.
KCKCC won two earlier games over Cloud 19-8 and 4-3 but Blue Devil coach Lana Ross expects a stern test.
“It’s going to be tough first round test,” Ross said. A win would send KCKCC to Topeka the following Saturday to meet No. 2 seeded Hesston in semifinal action starting at 10 a.m.
Seven Blue Devil hitters will take .300 batting averages into the playoffs led by sophomore first baseman Kaylee Arnzen and freshman shortstop Hannah Redick. Both are hitting .397. Arnzen leads the Blue Devils in home runs (9), extra base hits (22) and runs-batted-in (44) while Redick is easily the leader in hits with 71 and doubles with 16.
Other hitting leaders are pitcher Shay Grosstephan (.345). outfielders Devin Purcell (.342) and Alexis Rymer (.338), second baseman Britney Smith (.313), catcher Jennica Messer (.308), third baseman Alaina Howe (.258) and pitcher Mackenzie Pinkerton (.228). Rymer is second in RBI (39) and extra base hits (19) while Redick (33) and Smith (32) are the other RBI leaders.
Two freshmen, Grosstephan (12-5) and Pinkerton (15-10), are expected to get the starting pitching assignments with sophomore Faith Maslak (7-2) available for relief work. Opposing hitters are batting .269 against Grosstephan, 2.79 against Pinkerton and .239 against Maslak.
Pinkerton has been the busiest of the hurlers, giving up 172 hits, striking out 128 and walking 85 in 144 innings while compiling a 4.72 earned run average. Grosstephan (4.38 ERA) has allowed 145 hits in 121 innings, striking out 65 and walking 49.