By ALAN HOSKINS
Hopefully a return to the confines of its new baseball complex this week will be a lot friendlier to Kansas City Kansas Community College than the past weekend.
Swept in four games at league-leading Cowley, the Blue Devils play eight games in the next six days including six at home starting Tuesday with a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader with Longview.
On the road Wednesday at Johnson County for a pair of makeup games at 3 p.m., KCKCC, is right back home Saturday and Sunday for twin bills against Coffeyville at 1 p.m.
There’s a reason Cowley is 18-0 and six games ahead of second place Coffeyville in the Jayhawk East – pitching.
Limiting the Blue Devils to just 18 hits in four games, the pitching-rich Tigers outscored KCKCC 28-5 in their four-game sweep to drop KCKCC to 8-8 in the league and 12-11 overall.
Limited to just three singles in a 2-0 loss in the opener, the Blue Devils bounced back to take a 2-0 lead in the third inning of Friday’s nightcap.
Pancho Amaya drove in both runs with a single after leadoff hits by Jacob Woods and Dean Long. However, Cowley rebounded with three runs in the bottom the inning against Derrick Winter in a 4-2 win. Zac Butler took the loss in the opener, allowing just six hits and two runs.
The Tigers brought out the big bats Saturday, winning 9-0 and 13-3. The Blue Devils were limited to four singles in the opener but got home runs from Amaya and Andrew Kreiling in the nightcap. Amaya finished the weekend with four hits while Wood, Long and Landon Teal had three each as they combined for 13 of the 18 weekend hits.
“They’re a very good team and once you get behind, it changes everything,” said KCKCC Coach Steve Burleson. “Right now they’re a much better team than we are but we have between now and the end of the season to get better.”
