by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Sophomore Geena Harris delivered one of the biggest blows in recent Kansas City Kansas Community College softball history Wednesday, a dramatic two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning that rallied the Lady Blue Devils to a 3-2 win over arch-rival Johnson County.
The win gave the Blue Devils a split in the Jayhawk Conference twin bill, JCCC winning the resumption of a suspended game 5-4 in nine innings. The game was tied 2-2 when rain stopped play in the top of the seventh inning. The Cavaliers scored three times in the top of the ninth and then choked off a Blue Devil rally by leaving the tying run stranded at third.
The split left the Blue Devils at 17-8 heading into a stretch of three straight doubleheaders on the road – at Cowley Friday, Independence Saturday and Haskell University Monday before returning home against Allen County on Tuesday.
A first baseman from Bonner Springs, Harris’ game-winning home run to left field came on a 2-2 pitch and scored Morgan Oroke, who had walked on a full count with one out. It was Harris’ third hit and third RBI. Her two-out single following an error scored KCKCC’s only other run in the fourth. Winning pitcher Brittany Gustin had the only other Blue Devil hit.
Gustin gave up just three hits and errors figured in both of the Cavaliers’ runs in the fifth and sixth innings. She struck four and walked none in earning her 11th win.
JCCC’s 3-run rally in the ninth inning of the 5-4 opener came on a hit batsman, two singles and a ground ball out. Until then, the Cavaliers had been held scoreless since the third inning.
The Blue Devils rapped out 11 hits against two JCCC pitchers. LaTisha Thomas led the way with three singles while Kennedy Rasmussen doubled twice, Morgan Oroke singled and doubled and Harris doubled.
Trailing 5-2, the Blue Devils rallied in the bottom of the ninth, scoring twice on a walk and singles by Kalynn Stratton and Thomas before the Cavaliers escaped with a strikeout and fly ball. KCKCC’s first two runs came on a single by Thomas and run-scoring doubles by Rasmussen and Oroke.