by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College regained its hitting touch Monday, pounding out 36 hits in a sweep at Haskell Indian Nation University.
The Lady Blue Devils had 17 hits in a 9-3 opening win and followed up with 19 more in an 11-3 nightcap win. The wins boosted KCKCC’s record to 19-12 heading into back-to-back home games against Allen County today and Maple Woods at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Tiffany Killam led the way with seven hits in the two games including her 11th home run of the season. Morgan Oroke banged out five singles and a double while Kaylynn Stratton and Mekayla Foskett had four hits each in the doubleheader.
Brittany Gustin had a shutout through six innings of the 9-3 opener, striking out seven and walking `four before Haskell put together four hits for three runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Killam drove in four of KCKCC’s first six runs, staking the Blue Devils to a 1-0 lead in the first on a double and then belting a 3-run home run in a 4-run third following singles by Hannah Bishop, Stratton and LaTisha Thomas. The Blue Devils’ other runs came on a double by Foskett and single by Stratton in the second, a walk and singles by Oroke and Geena Harris in the sixth and two in the seventh on a triple by Stratton and singles by Bishop, Killam and Oroke. It was the third hit each for Oroke and Bishop.
Foskett, Killam and Oroke each had a double and two singles in the 11-3 nightcap. MeKayla Guerrero and Elizabeth Seimears added a double and single and Savannah Dungan two singles. Seimears also went the distance for the pitching win, scattering five hits, striking out two and walking none.
Leading only 5-3, the Blue Devils got an insurance run in sixth on a single by Killam and then put the game out of reach with five runs on seven hits in the seventh. Harris, Seimears, Sam Sudac, Stratton, Foskett, Killam and Oroke all had singles in the uprising.
The Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead in the first on just one hit, a leadoff single by Guerrero, and added two more runs in the second on Guerrero’s 2-run double following a pair of walks. KCKCC made it 5-0 in the third on singles by Oroke and Seimears before Haskell closed to 5-3 with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.