by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
The road doesn’t get any easier for Kansas City Kansas Community College baseball. After dropping a doubleheader to No. 5 Johnson County Saturday, the Blue Devils play host to No. 9 Cowley County in a doubleheader Tuesday starting at 1 p.m.
Johnson County (27-1) broke open a close game in the late innings for a 7-4 first game win and then needed just seven innings for a 15-4 nightcap win Saturday. The wins kept JCCC (11-1) a game ahead of Cowley (10-2) for the Jayhawk Conference lead.
Fourth in the Jayhawk at 5-5 and 10-8 overall, the Blue Devils are at Cloud County for a non-conference doubleheader Thursday before resuming Jayhawk play against Highland next week.
KCKCC trailed 3-2 in the sixth inning of the opener only to have the Cavaliers go long ball. Jackson Galloway doubled, Brevon Lee tripled and Nate Stevens homered for a 6-2 lead. The Blue Devils got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth on singles by Jaylon Johnson, Cole Silbowski and Cole Dawson and a Raymond Paniagua sacrifice fly.
Jay Long (4-0) got the pitching win, allowing four hits and an earned run in 4.1 innings while Sebastian Velez (1-2) took the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits. Dawson and Paniagua each had two hits for the Blue Devils, who had nine hits but left 11 runners stranded.
JCCC scored six runs in the second inning and five in the seventh to close out the 15-4 nightcap win.
The Cavaliers took a 2-0 lead on a Quinton Hall home run in the first inning but the Blue Devils went ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the inning. A double by Silbowski, single by Dawson scored one run; Caleb Adams singled in another and Brendyn Bard’s sacrifice fly put the Blue Devils in front.
The Cavaliers regained the lead with a 5-hit, 6-run sixth inning highlighted by Wyatt Morgan’s go-ahead two-run homer and a two-run double by Noah Cook. The Cavaliers finished with 19 hits off three KCKCC pitchers.
Austin led with four hits including a two-run homer in the seventh. KCKCC was limited to nine singles including two each by Silbowski and Paniagua.