by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College got its first Jayhawk Conference softball win in three starts Tuesday but couldn’t make a 10-8 lead hold up in an 11-10 nightcap loss at Fort Scott.
The split left the Lady Blue Devils 9-7 heading into a non-conference doubleheader against Cottey College in Nevada, Mo., today before returning home for back-to-back Jayhawk twin bills against Cowley College Friday (2-4 p.m.) and Independence Saturday (12-2 p.m.).
Megan Sumonja pitched the Blue Devils to a 7-5 win in the opener at Fort Scott, allowing four hits and five runs although only two of the runs were earned. Sumonja struck out eight and walked seven as she stranded nine Greyhounds on the base paths including the tying runs in the seventh. Leading 7-2 in the seventh, Sumonja walked two and then gave up back-to-back singles to make it 7-5 before leaving the tying runs on first and third.
The Blue Devils backed Sumonja with 15 hits including a double and two singles by Katherina Stringer, a double and single each by Amy-Grace Wilson, Allison Kasick, Mikaela Hoffart and Sumonja and two singles by Taylor Hall.
The Blue Devils bunched four doubles to take a 3-1 lead in the fourth. Kasick and Hoffart started it with back-to-back two baggers for one run and after two were out, Stringer and Sumonja doubled in runs. Another 3-run rally in the sixth made it 7-2. After a double by Wilson and a single by Stringer started the inning, Hannah Bishop singled in a pair of runs and after a bunt single by Kaylynn Stratton, Kasick singled in the final run.
Three pitchers went to the mound in an effort to stop the Greyhounds in the nightcap. Fort Scott overcame an early 4-0 deficit in the nightcap as the Greyhounds got a 3-run homer in the third and scored four more runs in the fourth for a 7-4 lead against starter Shannon Green.
Cheyenne Owens came on in the fifth after KCKCC had taken an 8-7 lead and gave up the tying run in the fifth but took a 10-8 lead into the seventh. With one out and one on in the seventh, Fort Scott got a single, walk and game-tying double off Megan Mason before an infield error scored the winning run.
Allison Kasick led a 15-hit attack with a grand slam home run, two singles and five RBI while Taylor Hall, Katherina Stringer and Candice Jennings also had three hits each.
A triple by Bishop, hit batsman and Hall’s bunt single loaded the bases for Kasick’s grand slam and a 4-0 lead in the third. After Fort Scott went ahead 7-5, KCKCC scored three times in the fifth. Singles by Hall, Kasick and Stringer scored one run and Jennings singled in two more.
Jennings also doubled in a run after a single by Stringer in the fourth. Tied 8-8 in the sixth, KCKCC went ahead 9-8 on a walk and singles by Hall and Kasick and then made it 10-8 on a two-out Stringer single. Unfortunately, it would not be enough.