Category: KCKCC

by Tyler Scott, KCKCC sports information director

Charlotte, North Carolina – After winning its first district championship since 2004, the No. 16 KCKCC softball team was awarded the No. 9 seed in the upcoming NJCAA Division II Softball National Tournament, which will take place at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.

The Blue Devils enter the tournament with a 43-14 overall record and open with No. 8 seed and 10th-ranked Triton College out of River Grove, Illinois.

The tournament is double-elimination with the first games beginning Tuesday and the championship game taking place on Saturday.

KCKCC will be counting on its offense to continue where it left off at the district tournament, where it outscored its opponent 19-5 in three games played.

Three Blue Devils in particular are batting at least .400 in McKenna Lester, Bradi Basler and Mckenzie Ogden. Basler (17) and Lester (12) have also each hit double-digit home runs, while Ogden sits two triples away from breaking the program record for most in a Blue Devil uniform.

Lester, Savannah Maynard, Basler and Maya Sheldon have all hit at least 10 doubles on the season. Lester also has a team high 87 hits and 85 RBI.

Basler and Breanna Droge have formed a tandem with a total of 42 wins in the circle and 321 strikeouts.

For Triton College, the Trojans are 49-7 overall. Celeste Boshold is batting .500 to lead the team with 14 home runs and 65 RBI. Katlyn Cherry is second on the team with a .456 batting average and leads the Trojans with 15 home runs. Alyssa Stramaglia and Claire Stillwell are the top two pitchers for Triton with Stramaglia posting a 23-1 record and Stillwell boasting a 12-2 mark. Both have also combined for 402 strikeouts.

If the Blue Devils win, they face a potential match with No. 1 overall seed Des Moines Area College on Wednesday. A loss would put KCKCC in must-win mode for the duration of the championship.

For information on the entire NJCAA Division II Softball National Tournament, visit https://www.njcaa.org/championships/sports/sball/div2/index.

For a look at the entire bracket of teams, visit https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/r/i/havw6yruqhwymp/2022_DII_Softball_Championship_-_Bracket_v3.pdf.

by Tyler Scott, KCKCC sports information director

Camden Karlin had a strong pitching performance as the No. 3 seed KCKCC baseball team took care of No. 6 seed Cloud County Community College 5-1 in the first game of the Plains District Tournament at Tointon Family Stadium, on the campus of Kansas State University.

The Blue Devils are now 48-10 overall and advance to Wednesday’s second-round game at 4 p.m.

After Karlin started the game by retiring the Thunderbirds, the Blue Devils offense struck in the first inning.

Cole Dawson led off with a single before stealing second base and advancing on a wild pitch to third.

Brendyn Bard stepped up to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly ball to right field to bring Dawson in to score.

In the second inning, two Blue Devils reached base with one out. Pablo Sanchez, who was standing at third base, stole home to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead.

Karlin threw another scoreless frame in the third inning, which led to another scoring frame for the Blue Devils. Palmer Hutchison hit his sixth home run of the season to lead off the inning and put the Blue Devils up 3-0.

KCKCC added its fourth run the next inning when Dawson hit a sacrifice fly ball to right field, scoring Payton McHarg.

Cloud County Community College was hitless through the first six innings before it was able to muster two hits and one run in the seventh.

The Blue Devils escaped the jam that inning before adding a final run in the bottom half on a single by Darius Freeman. Karlin’s pitching performance lasted the entire game as KCKCC held on easily to advance in the next round.

Sanchez and Freeman each had two hits in the game. Karlin pitched nine innings, allowing just three hits and one run, while fanning eight batters.

KCKCC advances to Wednesday with a match against the winner of No. 2 Barton – No. 10 seed Hutchinson Community College at 4 p.m.

Basler hurls 18 straight scoreless innings in wins over Highland, Hesston

by Alan Hoskins

Riding the right arm of sophomore Bradi Basler, Kansas City Kansas Community College is headed for the NJCAA Division II national softball tournament.

The third national appearance for the Blue Devils, the tournament will be played in Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama, May 24-28. Ranked No. 16 nationally, KCKCC will take a 43-14 record into the national.

A first team All-American last season, Basler pitched the Blue Devils to three straight wins in the Great Plains District Tournament in Topeka. The last two wins were shutouts, 1-0 in eight innings over Jayhawk Conference champion Highland Saturday and 7-0 over Hesston in the championship game Monday. Basler finished the tourney with 18 scoreless innings.

The drive to the national was made especially memorable as Lana Ross got her 700th coaching win in an 11-5 win over Johnson County in the tourney opener; Basler got two pitching wins on her 21st birthday on Saturday, and the game’s biggest play in the 1-0 win over Highland was turned in by leftfielder McKenna Ogden, who transferred from Highland to KCKCC this season.

In the top of the sixth in the 0-0 clash, Ogden threw out what would have been the winning run at the plate. It was the only real scoring threat the Scotties mounted against Basler, who struck out seven and walked three.

Limited to just two hits – both by freshman McKenna Lester – the bottom of the Blue Devils lineup abruptly exploded in the bottom of the eighth.

Sophomore Madison Pope, the No. 8 hitter, rifled a double to left to start the inning, took third on Kaitlyn Bradbury’s bunt single and scored on Savannah Maynard’s fly ball, just beating the throw home in what would have been a bang-bang play had Highland catcher Ellie Kliethermes been able to handle the throw.

“I told Pope to open her hips and her double was just what we needed,” Ross said.

The run set off a wild celebratory melee at the plate as the Blue Devils avenged 4-3 and 5-0 losses to the Scotties (40-9), who came into the tournament ranked No. 12 nationally and winner of 15 of their last 16 games.

“It’s the first time since 2004 that we’ve been to the nationals so I couldn’t be prouder,” Ross said. “These young ladies worked so hard and played their hearts out. And what can you say about Bradi? Eighteen scoreless innings, which is fantastic.”

Basler provided the only run she needed in the championship game against Hesston, belting her 17th home run in the top of the first.

The Blue Devils then put the game out of reach with four runs in the fourth, the big blow a 2-run triple by Ogden with two outs. Lindsey Gettle’s single ignited the rally and after a walk to Pope, Maynard’s sacrifice fly scored the first run and an error scored the fourth.

Hesston had seven hits off Basler (26-7) but only two runners got beyond second base. The first was cut down at the plate, again on a throw by Ogden to Gettle.

The Blue Devils cruised to the 11-5 win over Johnson County in the opener, pounding out 14 hits as they built a 9-1 lead through four innings. Maynard and Lester had three hits each while Trinity Tauer and Ogden had a pair of singles. The team’s RBI leader, Lester drove in three runs and Maya Sheldon, Tauer and Gettle two each.