Alan Hoskins, Supervisor of Public Information
Monday, May 03, 2010
College Advancement
Thanks to a late-season rush, Kansas City Kansas Community College is just three wins away from earning a berth on the NJCAA Division II national softball tournament.
Winner of 10 of their last 14 games, the young Lady Blue Devils qualified for this weekend’s four-team Region VI tournament in Wichita by posting a pair of nail-biting one-run wins at Allen County Saturday and Sunday.
Riding the right arm of sophomore Sarah Payan of El Paso, Tex., the Blue Devils opened the best of three series with a 1-0 win Saturday and then after a 3-0 loss, never trailed in a 5-4 title clinching win Sunday.
“We’ve been telling them all year if we could put everything together, pitching, hitting and defense, they could do good things,” said KCKCC Coach Kacy Tillery, who starts just two sophomores in addition to Palan. “With so many freshmen this is a young team and I think it’s just taken time to learn how to play at this level.”
Sophomore Chelsea Crouch of Bonner Springs drove in the game’s only run in the 1-0 opener, doubling in Bishop Ward freshman Rose Breitenstein who had walked. Allen’s only serious threat came in the first on a two-out triple but Payan got the cleanup hitter to bounce to the mound and allowed only two runners to get as far as second the rest of the way as she finished with a four-hitter.
A strong 5-hit pitching by Piper frosh Fallon Thompson wasn’t enough in the 3-0 loss as KCKCC managed just two hits, by Breitenstein and freshman Briannah Williams of Topeka.
However, the Blue Devils unloaded in the third game, jumping off to a 3-0 first inning lead on four consecutive hits, singles by Baxter Springs freshman Jenyce Spence, Williams and Payan for one run and a two-run double by Cymantha Hamilon, a freshman from Bishop Ward. The Blue Devils made it 4-0 in the second on singles by Breitenstein and Spence and scored what proved to be the winning run in the fourth on doubles by Breitenstein and Crouch.
Allen took advantage of three errors, KCKCC’s only defensive lapse of the day, to score three runs in the fifth and added another in the sixth before Payan closed out a 4-hitter with a fly to short, her fifth strikeout and a popup to the mound to close out the seventh.
KCKCC will now play Highland Friday at 7 p.m. at Two Rivers Youth Sports Complex in Wichita. Cowley will play Hutchinson in the other half of the double elimination tournament which will be concluded Saturday.