Roadrunners start fast, defeat Allen County Community College

The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Roadrunners baseball team used a big offensive outburst in the first inning to best Allen County Community College 15-5 in six innings because of the run rule on Tuesday, April 7 at Liberty Park Stadium-Dey Field.

SFCC (17-23) scored nine runs in the bottom the first inning, including four home runs to pick up the victory.

"It is really helpful to get off to a fast start," said Roadrunners head coach Jud Kindle. "It takes some of the pressure off our pitchers. It is always good to start out with a big first inning. The game was a lot closer than it actually seemed. We had a couple more timely hits than they did. They put themselves in situations where they really could have hurt us, but we just came up with the big hits. Allen County was one hit away from making it a very close game in two different innings. We have to do a better job of throwing strikes in certain situations and keeping ourselves out of those big innings. We had Carter Hollingsworth and Silas Antle come in and shut the door in a couple big situations for us."

Outfielder Devin Wassmann of the Platte City, Mo. had a pair of hits including a home run, six RBIs, and a run scored. Middle infielder Christian Kuchta of Liberty, Mo. hit a home run, a double, scored three times, and drove in two runs. Outfielder Collin Ross of Branson, Mo. had two hits including a home run, three runs scored, and two RBIs. Catcher Albert Salguera of Caracas, Venezuela had a pair of hits, including a double and a run scored. Outfielder Drake Odneal of Smithville, Mo. had a pair of hits and scored twice. Corner infielder Andrew Hill of Columbia, Mo. hit a home run, drove in three runs, and scored twice.

SFCC put together 12 hits and 11 walks as a team in the game.

"Allen County is a well-coached team," said Kindle. "You can definitely see that Trey (Harris) is going to do some really good things there."

Pitcher Brayden Beckmann of Ashland, Mo. got the start on the mound for SFCC. Beckmann pitched three innings, gave up one hit, struck out three, and walked one.

SFCC will return to action on Friday, April 10 with a doubleheader at Illinois Central College. It is scheduled for a 12 p.m. first pitch

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics