by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
With the opening of the 2020 Jayhawk Conference baseball season just four days away, Kansas City Kansas Community College took dead aim on the opener with a four-game weekend sweep of Marshalltown Community College.
The conference opener comes Thursday against the No. 3 ranked NJCAA Division I team in the nation, Cowley College. The defending Jayhawk champion, Cowley is 10-4 coming off a four-game split with Iowa Western this past weekend. First pitch will come at 1 p.m.
At State Fair for a 9-inning single game Tuesday, the Blue Devils are 9-3 after outscoring Marshalltown 55-15. The Blue Devils won 14-5 and 8-0 Saturday and 20-5 and 13-5 on Sunday.
The Blue Devils were led offensively by sophomores Griffin Everitt and Eduardo Acosta. Everitt had eight hits including two home runs and drove in seven runs; Acosta had seven hits and drove in 10. Tyler Henry also drove in seven runs, freshman Palmer Hutchinson six and Jose Sosa five and each had at least one home run while Seth Kenagy added six hits and eight stolen bases in three games.
The Blue Devils pounded out four home runs in a come-from-behind 15-5 win in the series opener Saturday. Everitt, Sosa, Hutchinson and Trey Hoover launched the homers to highlight a 16-hit attack.
Seth Kenagy and Everitt each had three hits, Hoover, Hutchinson and Raymond Paniagua two apiece with Everitt and Hutchinson driving in three runs.
Marshalltown took a 5-0 lead before KCKCC scored four times in the third and eight in the fourth. Two-run home runs by Sosa and Everitt scored the four runs in the third and the Blue Devils bunched eight hits for the eight runs in the fourth. The Blue Devils rapped out seven straight hits in the fourth.
A 3-run home run by Hutchinson and a 2-run double by Acosta were the big blows while Caleb Adams, Paniagua, Kenagy, Everitt and Hoover contributed singles.
Southpaw Gaby Ramos got the win, allowing eight hits and five runs in five innings before Parker Weddle mopped up with two hitless innings.
Joseph Reyes allowed just two hits in five innings in Saturday’s 8-0 second game win. Reyes struck out four and walked one before Chase Terrell and Nao Fukada each pitched a hitless inning.
Acosta drove in a run in each of KCKCC’s three scoring innings. Aided by four Marshalltown errors, the Blue Devils scored two runs in each of the first and second inning on just one hit, a single by Acosta, and then wrapped up the win with four runs in the fourth.
After singles by Panagua and Kenagy and a walk scored one run, Acosta tripled in two more and scored on Henry’s single.
The Blue Devils trailed 4-1 in the second inning of Sunday’s first game before a grand slam home run by Henry capped a 6-run second inning and put KCKCC ahead to stay in the 20-5 win.
Sosa and Everitt also homered in a 15-hit attack. Sosa finished with three hits and three RBI; Everitt homered and doubled; Henry added an RBI single to his grand slam; Michael Edgar doubled and drove in three runs; Acosta singled twice; and Hutchinson tripled in a pair of runs.
Steven Santiago got the win with three scoreless innings of 3-hit relief, striking out four and walking none. Chase Terrell finished up with two hitless innings, striking out three.
Jake Shafer started, giving up five runs on four hits and two walks in two innings. He struck out two.
KCKCC put Sunday’s second game out of reach by scoring eight runs in the first in the 13-5 win. Everitt started the uprising with a single and capped it with an RBI double.
The big inning also featured a 3-run double by Acosta; a two-run single by Kade Chastain, who had also had a 2-run single in the fourth; and a run-scoring single by Samuel Juarez, who had two hits and two RBI. Everitt finished with three hits, Zayne Morrow, Juarez, Chastain and Acosta two each.
Jason Crowley got the win, allowing just one hit and one run in 3 2/3 innings of relief. He struck out six and walked one. Hunter Cashero struck out two in a hitless sixth innings; Parker Weddle was touched for two hits in a scoreless seventh.