by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College continued on its biggest tear of the season Tuesday, breaking a ninth inning deadlock with a 6-5 win over State Fair.
The win was the eighth in the last nine games for the Blue Devils and improved their gaudy home record to 18-3 heading into the biggest series of the season.
Locked in a 3-way tie for second place with Fort Scott and Cowley at 16-8, the Blue Devils (28-13) will play two games at Fort Scott Thursday and then return home Saturday to complete the four-game series at 1 p.m. Meanwhile, league-leading Johnson County (17-6-1) will be playing a four-game series with fifth place Allen County (14-10).
The 6-5 win over State Fair Tuesday came on a one-out sacrifice fly off the bat of Chase Redick after the Blue Devils loaded the bases on a hit batsman and back-to-back singles by Tyler Pittman and Alex Phillips.
The win made a winner out of reliever Julian Rivera, who struck out two of the three men he faced in the top of the ninth.
Cameron Bednar worked the first four innings, allowing five hits and four runs – none of which were earned. Luke Ostenson kept State Fair scoreless until the eighth when the Roadrunners pulled even on two singles off Ostenson and one off Jarrett Cronin.
KCKCC took a 2-0 lead in the first on singles by Redick and Josh Schumacher, Ty Bradshaw’s squeeze bunt and an error and added another run in the third on a double by Albert Woodard and a single by Phillips.
However, State Fair went ahead in the fourth, taking advantage of three Blue Devil errors to score four runs and it took a 2-run rally in the bottom of the sixth for KCKCC regain the lead 5-4.
After a walk and a single by Easton Fortuna, Zach Mahoney’s squeeze bunt tied it and Brigham Mooney put the Blue Devils back ahead with a 2-out double. Redick and Phillips had two hits each and Rorey Combs doubled for KCKCC, which was outhit 12-9.