Category: Sports

Ford no-hitter helps Lady Blue Devils to 4-game sweep

Leslie Ford

by Alan Hoskins

Sweeping a four-game non-conference series over the weekend highlighted by a no-hit pitching performance by Leslie Ford, Kansas City Kansas Community College returns to Jayhawk Conference play with four doubleheaders in five days.

Weather permitting, the Lady Blue Devils will play host to Fort Scott Tuesday and Barton County Wednesday and then play at Cowley Friday and Independence Saturday. All four twin bills will have 2 and 4 p.m. starts.

The Blue Devils got big hits at the most opportune times in defeating Maple Woods 5-0 and 4-3 Friday before routing a club team from the University of Kansas 8-0 and 11-3 Saturday. The sweep improved the Blue Devils overall record to 16-6.

Ford got two wins and a save in the four games. After blanking Maple Woods 5-0 in Friday’s opener, Ford got the save with one inning of one-hit relief in the 4-3 nightcap, then came back with a 5-inning no-hitter over KU in Saturday’s 8-0 opening win. She struck out six and had a perfect game until walking the leadoff hitter in the fifth.

Ford also delivered one of the two biggest hits in the 5-0 win over Maple Woods, a two-run double following singles by Amanda Holroyd and Hanna Barnhart in the second inning. The other big hit came in the fourth, a two-out bases-loaded triple by Justice Scales after a single by Laura Vanderheiden and two errors had loaded the bases. Scales and Barnhart each had two hits in the win.

Vanderheiden and Ashley Henington delivered the big blows in the 4-3 nightcap win. Vanderheiden lashed a 3-run triple run in the second after KCKCC had loaded the bases on three walks. Maple Woods had taken a 2-0 lead, scoring runs in each of the first two innings and then tying the game on a double and two singles in the third. Henington provided her own support for the pitching win by breaking the 3-3 tie with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the sixth. Henington gave up one hit and struck out one in two innings in relief of starter Elizabeth Seimears.

The Blue Devils lashed out 10 hits in the 8-0 win over KU. Holroyd led with three singles while Lacey Santiago added two hits. Mierra Morisette’s 2-run triple following a leadoff single by Santiago and a double by Scales highlighted a 4-run first inning.

KCKCC added 17 more hits in the 11-3 5-inning nightcap. Morisette and Santiago each had four hits while Scales and Holroyd each drove in three runs with a double and single. Vanderheiden also had had two hits while Ford doubled and drove in two runs. Henington pitched the first two innings, allowing three hits and no earned runs while Seimears pitched the last three, allowing just a pair of hits and striking out six.

Blue Devil golfers second in 19-team Bethel Tournament

Members of the Kansas City Kansas Community College golf team took a few minutes for a photo on a railway car while competing in the Bethel Spring Invitational Saturday and Sunday in Newton and Hesston. (KCKCC photo by Gary Shrader)

by Alan Hoskins

One of only two community colleges in the 19-team field, Kansas City Kansas Community College finished second in the Bethel Spring Golf Invitational Saturday and Sunday.

Bethany took top honors in the 36-hole tourney played in 40 mile an hour wins with an even 600 with KCKCC edging a second Bethany team 639-640 for second place.

“The wind was brutal the second day,” said KCKCC coach Gary Shrader. “Everyone’s score soared, most by 8-10 strokes but several by as many as 20 or 30.”

Doane College finished fourth (644) followed by Ottawa (645), Pittsburg State and Dakota Wesleyan (648), Hastings (650). Kansas Wesleyan (662) and Briar Cliff (670).

The tourney was played at Sand Creek in Newton and Hesston Golf Club.

Freshmen Lane Pauls of Newton and Seve Sites of Shawnee Mission West finished in a tie for sixth to lead the Blue Devils. Pauls had rounds of 73-82-155 and Sites 72-83-155.

Sophomore Collin Herron of Topeka Hayden tied for 37th (79-87-166), freshman Montana Fasching of Piper shared 41st (78-90-168) and Newton frosh Dalton Ayres rounded out the scoring, tying for 73rd with a 178 after an opening 74.

The Blue Devils return to Jayhawk Conference play Saturday and Sunday, competing in the second spring designated tournament at Rolling Meadows in Junction City.

KCKCC again posts 4-game sweep of Jayhawk leader

by Alan Hoskins

The streaking Blue Devils of Kansas City Kansas Community College have done it again.

For the second time in two weeks, KCKCC has swept a four-game set with a team that entered the series holding down first place in the Jayhawk Conference.

Following up on 2-0 and 4-3 wins at home Friday, the Blue Devils went to Coffeyville Saturday and stretched their winning streak to 10 in a row with 6-1 and 6-4 wins that pulled them to even in the Jayhawk at 10-10 and 17-15 overall while dropping the Red Ravens from first (15-1) into a tie for third at 15-5.

game sweep of previously unbeaten Cowley, which regained a tie for first in the conference Saturday with a doubleheader win over Johnson County. 4.

KCKCC’s wins set up another big week for the Blue Devils, who play host to Maple Woods Tuesday and Brown Mackie Wednesday, both at 2 p.m., before entering a pivotal four-game series with Independence – at Indy Thursday and home Saturday at 1 and 3:30 p.m.

At 12-8, Indy is fifth in the Jayhawk two games ahead of KCKCC.

Tied 1-1 after seven innings of the opener at Coffeyville, the Blue Devils lashed out four straight hits in scoring five times in the top of the eighth for the 6-1 win.

After walks to Lucas Norton and Garrett McKinzie, Christian Arnold squeezed the go-ahead run home with a bunt single.

Daniel LaMunyon singled to load the bases before Eric Hinostroza singled in a run and Tyler Raymond delivered two more runs with a double.

Tanner Foerschler’s sacrifice fly got the final run home.

KCKCC’s only run up until the eighth came in the first when Sam Baxter singled, went to third on a pair of walks and scored on a balk.

Sophomore E.J. Merlo turned in his best pitching performance of the season for the win, allowing just four hits and no earned runs in going the 8-inning route. He struck out two and walked one. The only Coffeyville run came in the third on a two-base error, sacrifice and ground ball. Only one runner reached as far as second the final five innings as Merlo retired 14 of the final 17 hitters faced.

The Blue Devils scored all their runs after two were out in the 6-4 nightcap win. The big outburst came in the third, a 4-run uprising that erased a 2-0 Coffeyville lead.

Sam Baxter drove in the first run with a double after Lucas was hit with a pitch with two out. Baxter then scored the tying run on a wild pitch before Daniel LaMunyon put the Blue Devils in front 4-2 with a 2-run double.

What proved to be the winning runs came in the fifth.  McKinzie and Arnold were both hit by pitches with one out and with two out, McKInzie scored on a two-base error and Hinostroza singled in the second run for a 6-2 lead.

Southpaw Cole Frakes got the win with stellar relief help from Jonathan Mays and Derek Watkins. Coffeyville took its 2-0 lead in the second on a single, double and two-out error.

Frakes left in the fifth after giving up back-to-back walks with one out. Mays came on in relief and after giving up a two-run double, retired five of the final six hitters he faced and Watkins finished up, setting down the Ravens in order after giving up a leadoff single.