by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College got the 2020 baseball season off to a winning start Friday, combining stingy pitching with timely hitting for a 13-1 win over Richland Community College in Dallas, Texas.
The two teams play a doubleheader Saturday and the Blue Devils play Brookhaven in a single game Sunday in Farmers Branch before opening their home season with twin bills with Northeast Nebraska next Saturday and Sunday.
Sophomore lefthander Osvaldo Mendez picked up where he left off last season when he was the Blue Devils’ biggest winner on the mound, pitching no-hit ball for 5 1/3 innings. He allowed one run in six innings, striking out six and walking none.
“A dominant performance,” KCKCC head coach Matt Goldbeck said. “He was pounding the strike zone.”
Hunter Cashero, Steven Santiago and Mathis Maulden finished up, each working one scoreless inning as they combined to allow one hit, strike out one and walk two.
Eduardo Acosta belted a 3-run home run and drove in four runs; Seth Kenagy singled twice and scored three times; and Griffin Everitt drove in a pair of runs for the Blue Devils, who were the beneficiary of 12 walks and three hit batsmen.
KCKCC took a 1-0 lead in the first on a walk, an Everitt single and Jose Sosa’s ground ball and added four runs in the second, all with two out. Kenagy singled in the first run and after a walk, Acosta launched his 3-run homer.
The Blue Devils added six runs on just one hit in the fifth, a 2-out, 2-run single by Everitt after six walks, hit batsman and two Richland errors. Raymond Paniagua singled and scored on Acosta’s sacrifice fly as the Blue Devils scored twice in the seventh.
“A good start,” Goldbeck said. “Great job by Mendez and our offense came up with some big hits.”