by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College got just what every team wants from a leadoff man Monday in a 6-5 win at Maple Woods.
Rorey Combs, a freshman outfielder from Truman High School in Independence, had two singles, a double and triple, drove in two runs and scored three times in leading the Blue Devils to their 28th win in 30 starts.
The win sets up KCKCC’s biggest Jayhawk Conference series of the season to date, a four-game set with Fort Scott with whom the Blue Devils are deadlocked in second place. The series will open with two games at Fort Scott Thursday followed by two at home Saturday at 1 p.m.
Combs started the game with a triple and scored on Ty Bradshaw’s single; then scored again in the third on a single, stolen base and throwing error.
An error and Dade Wheeler’s single made it 3-0 in the fourth only to have Maple Woods close to 3-2 in the sixth on a walk, two singles and a 2-out error against reliever Jarrett Cronin.
Combs then delivered the game’s biggest hit in the seventh, a 2-run double after singles by Wheeler and Adam, and then scored what proved to be the winning run on Bradshaw’s sacrifice fly.
Maple Woods cut the margin to 6-5 in the seventh, scoring three times on five hits off Allan Brown, the big blow a 2-run home run by Matt Mackey, before Jake Bartshe got a save with two scoreless innings.
Max Storch, who pitched five scoreless innings while scattering five hits and striking out four, got the pitching win,