Limited to five hits in a 7-2 loss to Neosho County Monday, Kansas City Kansas Community College hitters rebounded with a 13-hit assault in a 13-3 nightcap win.
The split kept the Blue Devils deadlocked for second in the Jayhawk Conference with Coffeyville, both at 8-4, four games behind unbeaten Cowley (12-0).
The Blue Devils (11-7) are right back in action today and Wednesday, hosting Maple Woods today and Des Moines Area Community College Wednesday. Both are 9-inning games starting at 2 p.m.
KCKCC resumes Jayhawk Conference play this weekend with doubleheaders at Johnson County (6-4) Friday (4 p.m.) and Saturday (1 p.m.).
Trent Sullivan rapped out a pair of doubles and Garrett McKinzie drove in a pair of runs with a single and double to lead the Blue Devils’ 13-hit attack against six Neosho pitchers in the nightcap.
Derrick Winter got the pitching win, allowing nine hits, striking out five and walking one in the game shortened to six innings by the 10-run rule.
The Blue Devils put the game out of reach early, scoring four times in the first and adding six more in the second. A double by Sullivan ignited the 4-run first highlighted by two-out RBI singles by Caleb Waddell and Jacob Woods and a double by McKinzie.
KCKCC pounded out six hits in the 6-run second including Sullivan’s second double and singles by Andrew Kreiling, Poncho Amaya, McKinzie, Lucas Norton and Landon Teal, who drove in two runs.
Jake O’Brien hammered the first home run in the new baseball complex, a 394-foot two-run shot to right-center in the fifth inning, to lead Neosho to a 7-2 win in the opener.
KCKCC had taken a 1-0 lead in the first on a single by Jacob Woods and a sacrifice fly by McKenzie but Neosho bunched four hits to take a 4-1 lead in the fourth against Tyler Lankford, who gave up nine hits, striking out three and walking two.
KCKCC’s second run came in the fifth on doubles by Sullivan and Dean Long, who had two of the Blue Devils’ five hits.
