by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Rapping out 32 hits in two games, Kansas City Kansas Community College closed out regular season softball play with 15-7 and 11-0 wins over Cottey College at Steineger Field.
The sweeps sends the Lady Blue Devils (25-19) to Independence Saturday for the first two games of a best-of-three playoff series. Games will be played at 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday with a third game if necessary Sunday at 1 p.m.
Brittany Gustin (17-10) pitched a 5-hitter and struck out five in the 11-0 shutout after getting a save in the opener. Gustin also had a big day at the plate, driving in seven runs, two in the opener with a double off the top of the fence in her only plate appearance and then five runs in the nightcap on a 3-run home run, double and single.
Geena Harris drove in three runs with her sixth home run and two singles in the opener. Mekayla Foskett also had three hits including a double while Reagan Clough drove in three runs with a pair of doubles and Mekayla Guerrero and Tiffany Killam each singled and doubled.
After taking a 1-0 lead on a Foskett double and three walks in the first, the Blue Devils scored five runs in the second. Hannah Moore started the uprising with a double and scored on Serena Escobar’s triple. After a Guerrero single, Morgan Oroke doubled in a run and Harris drilled a 2-run home run.
Clough’s first double came in the fourth after singles by Killam and Harris; her second came in a 6-run fifth that also included singles by Kennedy Rasmussen and Harris and doubles by Killam and Gustin. The Blue Devils needed the big fifth inning after Cottey had closed to 8-7 on a grand slam home run in the fourth and a 2-run homer in the fifth. KCKCC then closed out the game in the sixth on a single by Foskett and triple by Guerrero.
The Blue Devils scored in bunches in the 11-0 nightcap. In addition to Gustin’s three hits and five RBI, Oroke had three hits and Foskett two.
After singles by LaTisha Thomas and Killam, Oroke, Harris and Gustin rapped run-scoring doubles in a 5-run first inning. Gustin’s 3-run home run was the big blow in a 4-run second inning and the Blue Devils plated three more runs in the fourth on five straight hits, singles by Oroke, Harris and Gustin and RBI doubles by Foskett and Savannah Dungen.
Thirteen sophomores were honored between games including seven starters – Tiffany Killam, Morgan Oroke, Geena Harris, Brittany Gustin, Mekayla Foskett, Savannah Dungan and Mekayla Guerrero. Others included parttime starters Elizabeth Seimears and Kennedy Rasmussen and reserves Serena Escobar, Reagan Clough, Hannah Moore and Lauren Johnson.