Category: KCKCC

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information

Kansas City Kansas Community College’s newest MO (method of operation) for baseball success: Get behind and then rally.

Overcoming 6-0 and 7-0 deficits in their first two games in the NJCAA Division I sub-regional in Liberal, the Blue Devils trailed Neosho County 8-6 in the eighth inning Sunday before rallying for a 9-8 win that wrapped up the championship and a berth in Friday’s four-team regional in Salina.

The win was the fifth in a row and boosted the Blue Devils’ record to 32-18 heading into a regional Friday that will determine the Jayhawk Conference representative in the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.

The Blue Devils reached the sub-regional tourney final by defeating Cloud County 16-9 after trailing 6-0 Friday and wiping out a 7-0 deficit in a wild come-from-behind 12-11 win over Neosho on Saturday. The Blue Devils’ opening foe in the regional is yet to be determined.

A misplayed bunt single by Camden Karlin was pivotal in KCKCC’s 3-run eighth inning Sunday. Cole Dawson led off the inning with a single and Brock Stewart reached on an error before Karlin’s bunt was thrown into right field to score Dawson. Beau Grable then tied it 8-8 with a sacrifice fly to center and Cole Slibowski drove in the game-winner with a one-out single to right. That brought on reliever Hunter Cashero, who set the Panthers down in order in the ninth.

Dawson drove in two runs with three singles; Ray Paniagua hammered a 2-run homer and singled; and Slibowski singled twice to pace a 10-hit Blue Devil attack.

Dawson put the Blue Devils in front 2-0 in the first with a 2-out, 2-run single after Neosho starter Drake LaRoche had given up three walks. The Panthers pulled even on an Ivan Witt home run in the third but Paniagua put KCKCC back in front 4-2 with his home run following a double by Brendyn Bard. However, Neosho scored twice in the fifth and sixth for a 6-5 lead.

The Blue Devils had scored a run in the fifth on Paniagua’s bunt single and Caleb Adams’ 2-out single and then tied it with an unearned run in the sixth on Slibowski’s single, again with two out. Neosho took its 8-6 lead in the eighth on a leadoff home run by Brett Wiemer and a pair of singles to set up KCKCC’s game-winning rally in the bottom of the inning.

Alan Mercado got the win, allowing five hits and four runs in three innings after southpaw Tre Simmons had pitched the first five frames, giving up five hits and four runs. He struck out four.

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information

Defense and playmaking do matter, especially when it comes to basketball All-Americans.

Second in the nation in both steals and assists, Aliyah Myers is the seventh Kansas City Kansas Community College Division II first team All-American as selected by the NJCAA. The Defensive Player of the Year in the Jayhawk Conference, Myers was also named to the first All-Region and All–Jayhawk teams.

“Aliyah is the most complete guard I’ve had in my tenure and definitely the most decorated guard I’ve had,” KCKCC coach Joe McKinstry said. “To be recognized as being one of the top players in the nation is certainly deserving.”

“Shocked and real happy,” said Myers, a 5-7 sophomore point guard from Derby, Kansas, who also finished second in scoring (13.5) and third in rebounding (5.5) in leading the Blue Devils to a 21-4 record, the Plains Regional championship and a berth in the NJCAA Division II national tournament.

Myers finished the season with 80 steals and 120 assists despite the season being shortened by 10 games because of the COVID pandemic. Her 10 steals against Hesston are the third most in KCKCC history and her 150 career steals are the ninth most.

“She could guard anywhere from the one to the four spot and do it very, very well,” McKinstry said. “She was great on the ball but she was also always in the right spot to help on and off the ball.”

A tireless defender who usually drew an opponent’s best offensive player, Myers played 684 minutes, the 12th most in the country.

“I just wanted to play every game being tough and giving 100 percent energy all the time,” Myers said. “It’s been my role all through high school and it didn’t change in college.”

Myers was almost bypassed coming out of Derby High School.

“One of my teammates went to Oregon State, another committed to Missouri State so I was overlooked,” Myers said. “At first I was not looking at junior colleges. I wanted to play NCAA Division I or II. But then I talked to my high school coach and he had good things to say about coach McKinstry so I reached out to him and took my visit.”

Myers will get a chance to play NCAA II basketball. She’s signed to play at Pittsburg State this coming season.

“I liked their style of play and it kind of felt like home because of the warm welcome I got from the coaches and players,” she said.

With the loss of Pittsburg State’s starting point guard, Myers is expected to have an immediate impact.

In her two years at KCKCC, the Blue Devils were 46-11.

“Obviously we were hoping the season would have ended better but I’m happy with what we accomplished,” Myers said. “We put ourselves in position to play in the national tournament and not all teams can do that. Playing for coach McKinstry made me a better player. I came in every day with the mindset of getting better and listening to him and buying into his program for sure made me better.”

Other Blue Devils to earn first team All-America recognition include Aneta Kausaite, 1996; Jurgita Kausaite, 1997; Stephanie Brown, 2005; Cierra Gaines, 2015; Cheyenne North, 2016; and Niji Collier, 2019. In addition, Cassidy Harbert earned honorable mention on the 2014 Community College All-America team chosen by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and Kisi Young was named to the NJCAA Division II second team in 2019.