by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College won a 7-2 home run duel in the first game of a doubleheader at Neosho County Friday only to be limited to just four hits in a 3-1 second game loss.
The split left the Blue Devils (15-3) solidly in the third place in the Jayhawk Conference as the two teams completed their four-game series today at KCKCC. Johnson County and Cowley share the Jayhawk lead, both at 13-1. At Rockhurst junior varsity Monday at 5 p.m., the Blue Devils open a pivotal four-game series at home Thursday against first-place JCCC.
Traice Hartter and Jose Sosa each homered and each drove in three runs in the 7-2 opener. The round-trippers made a winner out of Orlando Ortiz, who allowed only five hits and just two after the first inning.
Adam Theis’ two-run home run gave Neosho a 2-0 lead in the first inning but Ortiz was almost untouchable the rest of the way, striking out 12 and walking three. Just six Panthers reached base the final six innings and only one got past second base.
KCKCC took command in the third inning with a 5-run uprising. After a single by Jose Acosta, Hartter tied the game the game with a two-run home to left-center and Sosa gave the Blue Devils the lead with a 3-run home run following a walk and the first of two hits by Kevin Santiago.
Singles by Eric Hinostroza and Santiago added an insurance run in the fifth and Hartter drove in his third run with a double following a Tyler Henry single in the sixth.
Neosho broke up an outstanding pitching duel in the 9-inning nightcap, breaking a 1-1 deadlock with a two-out, two run rally in the bottom of the eighth.
KCKCC took a 1-0 lead on a Traice Hartter home run leading off the sixth inning but the Panthers pulled even in the bottom of the inning. Held to two hits the first five innings by Carlos Soto, Neosho tied it on a two-out double by Khalil Thrasher following a double and a single. The Panthers then won it in the eighth against reliever Gaby Ramos, who walked two before Brant Scrivner delivered a two-out double to left-center.
Soto scattered seven hits, walked two and struck out five in seven innings but the Blue Devils could muster only four hits off Neosho lefthander Ben DesRosiers and none after Hartter’s home run in the sixth.
DesRosiers struck out seven, walked none and retired the Blue Devils in order in five of his eight innings on the mound before Alex DeBay pitched a hitless ninth inning. Hartter had two of KCKCC’s four hits, Santiago and Trey Hoover the others.