by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College returns to the torrid Jayhawk Conference softball race Thursday after sweeping a non-conference doubleheader 4-3 and 9-1 at Southwestern Iowa Tuesday.
Locked in a four-way tie for second place, the Blue Devils square off against Labette in Parsons at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Blue Devils’ final road conference twin bill of the season. Johnson County (13-3) leads the conference with Highland, Hesston and Cowley sharing second with KCKCC, all at 11-5., with Labette another game back at 10-6.
With nine wins in their last 10 games, the Blue Devils’ improved their overall record to 32-14 with the two wins at Southwestern.
A clutch 2-run triple by Alexis Rymer in the fifth inning rallied the Blue Devils to their 4-3 win in the opener. Trailing 3-2, Devin Purcell was hit by a pitch and Kaylee Arnzen singled to set up Rymer’s game-winning three-base hit.
KCKCC took an early 1-0 lead on singles by Arnzen and Alaina Howe and Britney Smith’s RBI ground ball in the second only to have Southwestern score three times in the bottom of the inning on a double, single and an error. The Blue Devils cut their deficit to 3-2 in the fourth. Rymer was hit by a pitch, moved up on a single by Jennica Messer and scored on Brittney Beck’s infield grounder.
Mackenzie Pinkerton (14-7) got the win with four innings of two-hit relief. She walked five and struck out seven. Shay Grosstephan worked the first three innings, allowing three hits and three runs, one of which was unearned. She walked five, fanned two.
Faith Maslak (7-2) scattered five hits in the 5-inning 9-1 nightcap win, striking out two and walking one. Alaina Howe and Britney Smith both drove in three runs and Kaylee Arnzen two, each with a pair of hits as the Blue Devils did all their scoring in two innings.
The big inning was the first when the Blue Devils scored six times on six hits. Arnzen and Smith each drove in two runs in the inning. After an error, Devin Purcell and Grosstephen singled and Arnzen delivered a two-run double. A walk, singles by Jennica Mieser and Howe made it 4-0 and Smith plated the final two. The other three runs came in the fifth highlighted by Howe’s 2-run double.