Nothing like
the combination of stingy pitching and timely hitting as Kansas City Kansas
Community College’s Lady Blue Devils softball team proved the past week.
Led by the pitching of Jenny
Schneider and Katie Cothran and hitting of Mercedes Overstreet, Alyssa Lee and
Schneider, the Blue Devils rallied for 4-3 and 2-1 Jayhawk Conference wins over
Neosho County on Tuesday and then swept Cottey College 9-0 and 13-1 on
Thursday.
The four-game sweep boosted the Blue
Devils’ record to 12-16 overall and 7-9 in the Jayhawk East as they head into
the final weeks of the season with five of their last seven doubleheaders at
home. At Coffeyville Tuesday, KCKCC returns for three home twin bills in a row
starting with Pratt Friday at 3 and 5 p.m.; Dodge City Saturday (noon-2 p.m.)
and arch-rival Johnson County next Tuesday (2 and 4 p.m.).
Trailing
3-0 in the opener against Neosho, Mercedes Overstreet closed the gap to 3-2 in
the fourth with a two-run homer following a double by Alyssa Lee and set up a
game-winning two-run comeback in the fifth. After a walk and singles by Monica
Lee and Cothran loaded the bases, Alyssa Lee tied it with a sacrifice fly and
Overstreet singled in the winning run. Schneider scattered eight hits for the
win, allowing no earned runs as Neosho took advantage of three errors to score
three times in the second.
Neosho again led 1-0 in the first
inning of the nightcap and it stayed that way until the sixth inning when the
Blue Devils scored twice with two out. Taylor Sherrill started with a single
and with two out, Alyssa Lee singled to tie it and Schneider delivered a
run-scoring double to win it. Cothran got the win, allowing just five hits.
Schneider provided her own batting
support in the 9-0 blanking of Cottey, driving in three runs with a double and
single while allowing just five hits in the shutout. Cothran also had two
singles in an 8-hit attack as the Blue Devils scored two runs in each of five
straight innings.
The Blue Devils scored six times in
the second inning and seven times in the fourth in the 13-1 win while Cothran
was limiting Cottey to three hits. MoNica Lee and Cothran each had three
singles with Lee driving in three runs to lead a 12-hit KCKCC attack. Emily
Lappert added a pair of singles and Alika Buttermore and Overstreet both
doubled.
