by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
No sooner than returning home from splitting a doubleheader at Independence Thursday, Kansas City Kansas Community College had to go right back to the Jayhawk Conference baseball battlefield on Friday.
Saturday’s scheduled doubleheader with Indy was moved up from Saturday to Friday at 1 p.m. to avoid any chance of a Saturday rain out.
The Blue Devils needed 10 innings and some clutch two-out hitting to get a 7-6 win at Independence Thursday after the Pirates had taken an 18-8 error-filled win in a 5-inning opener.
Josh Schumacher’s two-out single in the top of the 10th inning scored the game-winner in the second game. The hit scored Adam North, who had walked with two out and stolen second base.
It was also the sixth run the Blue Devils scored with two out and made a winner out of Julian Rivera, who walked the first batter in the 10th and then retired the next three. In three innings of relief, Rivera gave up no hits, walked four and struck out two.
KCKCC took a 6-0 lead in the nightcap, scoring two runs in each of the first three innings. Kevin Santiago started it with a two-out home run and a double by Brandon Still and single by Gavin Gifford made it 2-0 in the first.
A single by Rorey Combs, Schumacher’s two-out double and a single by Tyler Pittman added two more runs in the second.
In the third, a Still single and Brigham Mooney’s one-out triple scored one run and Brady Holder’s two-out double made it 6-0.
The Blue Devils finished with a dozen hits including two hits each by Schumacher, Pittman, Santiago, Still and Mooney.
Independence managed just six hits but mounted two 3-run innings to forge a 6-6 tie.
Victor Gotay gave up the first three runs in the fourth on a walk, hit batsman and two hits.
The Pirates then tied it in the sixth, scoring all three runs off Allan Brown with two out including the tying run on a two-base error. Gotay and Brown each gave up three hits, walked two and struck out four.
Seven Blue Devil errors opened the floodgates for Independence in the 5-inning opener.
Cole Gacke took the loss, giving up 16 runs, only of which six were earned. He struck out three, walked none. Gavin Gifford finished up, allowing two hits and two runs.
KCKCC took a 2-0 lead in the first on a single by Still and a Remington Kelly sacrifice fly after a pair of hit batsmen but didn’t score again until the sixth and by then the Blue Devils trailed 16-2.
Santiago had a 2-run double and Combs a 2-run single in the 6-run inning that also included Still’s third hit and a single by Kelly.
Indy went ahead 4-2 in the bottom of the first and then scored four runs in the third, eight in the fourth and two in the fifth to end it aided in no small part by the seven errors including at least one in each scoring inning.