Category: KCKCC

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

If playing the best prepares a team to be the best, good things could be in store for Kansas City Kansas Community College softball.

However, it can also be painful. Facing two NJCAA Division I powers and one ranked Division II team over the past four days, the Blue Devils managed just one win in six games.

The lone win came Friday, a 6-3 home win over No. 10 ranked Kirkwood after a 10-2 loss in the opener. Two Division I teams swept the Blue Devils in two other series, both on the road. Northeast Oklahoma A&M won 11-0 and 8-0 in Miami, Oklahoma, Sunday; 17th ranked Crowder (19-1) won 10-2 and 12-1 in Neosho, Missouri, on Thursday.

The Blue Devils (6-6) return to action Wednesday, as hosts of Ellsworth at 1 and 3 p.m. and then open Jayhawk Conference play Thursday when they entertain Fort Scott at 2 and 4 p.m.

Lansing freshman Bradi Basler allowed just four hits and struck out 10 in the 6-3 win over Kirkwood Friday. All three runs came in the first inning as Basler pitched shutout ball the last six innings despite walking seven and hitting two.

Piper sophomore Alexis Rymer provided the big blow in the win. The Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead on four consecutive walks and a hit batsman in the bottom of the first and Rymer cleared the bases with a 3-run double and a 5-3 lead. Abby Henson and Leah Seichepine each had a pair of hits in the win.

Kirkwood took the first game 10-2, scoring five runs in the first and three in the second. Rymer and Basler homered for the Blue Devils’ two runs. Rymer finished with two hits while Jennica Messer doubled and Hannah Redick and Leah Seichepine each singled.

Freshman lefthander Nerida Elson started on the mound, allowing five runs on four hits and a walk. She struck out two. Shay Grosstephan worked the final four innings, allowing five runs on eight hits.

The Blue Devils were limited to two hits – singles by Basler and Alaina Howe – in Sunday’s 8-0 first loss to Northeastern Oklahoma. Grosstephan took the loss, giving up eight runs on 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Northeastern scored four runs in the second inning and five in the fourth in the 11-0 second game. Alaina Howe doubled and Devin Purcell, Redick, Rymer and Grosstephan each singled for the Blue Devils. Basler was touched for nine hits while striking out five and walking four in four innings.

The Blue Devils were held to just four hits at Crowder, Purcell and Henson singled in the 10-2 opener; Basler and Messer doubled in the 12-1 nightcap loss. Crowder stretched its winning streak to 13 with the sweep.

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Seth Kenagy came to the rescue of a faltering Kansas City Kansas Community College defense in the nick of time Saturday.

In peril of letting a 9-0 lead get away at No. 3 ranked Cowley College, Kenagy’s unassisted game-ending double play in the bottom of the seventh preserved a 9-8 win, the Blue Devils’ third in four games with the defending Jayhawk East champions.

“The play of the year,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said of Kenagy, a freshman second baseman from Grover, Missouri.

“With runners on first and second and one out, they hit a line drive that might have gone to the wall and ended the game but Seth fully laid out to make a diving catch and crawled to second base to double off the runner,” Goldbeck said. “Just a great play when we really needed it most.”

Cowley rebounded for an 18-1 win in Saturday’s second game after KCKCC had won the first two games of the four-game set 7-5 and 14-8 at home Thursday.

The series left the Blue Devils 13-4 overall and in a second place tie behind Johnson County (4-0) in the Jayhawk Conference. KCKCC returns to action Tuesday with a single game at Maple Woods and then opens a four-game series with Labette in Parsons on Thursday.

The Blue Devils threatened to turn the opening game into a rout, surging to a 9-0 lead in the first two innings only to have the defense suddenly turn sour – six errors that made five of the Tigers’ eight runs unearned.

“We let one error turn into multiple errors and gave up five unearned runs in the fifth,” Goldbeck said. “We are going to make errors but how we respond to them can make the difference in winning or losing. We need the next guy to step up and make the next play.”

KCKCC jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first. After a leadoff single by Kenagy, Griffin Everitt tripled and scored on Jose Sosa’s ground ball. A 3-run home run by Trey Hoover and a 2-run Sosa single were the big blows in a 7-run second inning.

After a leadoff double by Tyler Henry, a walk and Raymond Paniagua’s single loaded the bases, Kenagy singled in a run, Everitt doubled in two and Hoover made it 8-0 with his 3-run homer. Eduardo Acosta singled and scored what proved to be the winning run on a 3-base outfield error. The hit also was the Blue Devils’ last as three Cowley pitchers held KCKCC hitless the final five innings.

Freshman Parker Weddle of Park Hill got the win, slamming the door after the Tigers had closed to 9-8 in the fifth. Coming on with two out in the fifth, Weddle left two runners on base with a strikeout of cleanup hitter Janson Reeder and finished with two scoreless innings.

Joseph Reyes worked the first 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three hits. Chase Terrell was the victim of four errors in the fifth, giving up two hits and five runs, all unearned.

Cowley scored in every inning in the 18-1 nightcap, rapping out 15 hits off four KCKCC hurlers. Tyler Henry homered in the fourth inning for the Blue Devils’ lone run. Paniagua singled twice and Kenagy and Everitt once each for the Blue Devil hits.

“A really good start to the conference season,” Goldbeck said. “It’s tough to win at their place. The infield is different, hard and fast, and we tried to prep our infielders on how to handle it. We had one error in the fourth, four in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the seventh, not a recipe to win down there. Glad we were able to get both games in at home on Thursday because darkness was coming on fast.”