Johnson County splits with KCK and Neosho County

Overland Park, KS -- The JCCC baseball team registered back-to-back splits against East Jayhawk Conference opponents in recent days. The first split came at home against Kansas City Kansas, followed by a road split with Neosho County.

In the first game against KCKCC, the Cavaliers won a slugfest. The Cavaliers looked like they were going to run away with it early by taking a 10-1 lead into the fifth inning. With ace Kyle Crandall on the mound things looked good, but with two outs and nobody on, KCK scored six runs in the fifth inning cutting the Cavaliers lead down to three in the seventh inning. JCCC then brought on Justin Miller to put the game away. After a few base hits and an error, KCK was just down two with two men on. Miller got a ground ball to end the threat and collected his sixth save on the season. Brad Lewandowski and Reed Kreiser were both 3-for-4 with a home run.

In game two the bats were still on fire, but KCK came with 16-5 victory. JCCC gave up 14 hits in five innings. Chris Dobler, Jeremy Francis, Brad Lewandowski did their best to keep the Cavaliers close by collecting two hits a piece but it just wasn't enough.

Against Neosho County, the Cavaliers were down 4-1 in the fifth inning and the Panthers appeared to have command of the game. However, in the fifth inning, Neosho County's pitchers walked six consecutive batters, and after mixing in a few base hits, JCCC found themselves up 10-4. That proved more then enough for JCCC hurler Travis Blankenship, who pitched a complete game and earned his third win of the season. He allowed only five base hits. All but one came in the second inning.

In game two the Cavaliers put themselves in the hole with poor defense, allowing four unearned runs in the second. That proved to be too big of hole to climb out of, and the Cavaliers wasted a solid pitching effort by Tim Brown. He allowed only two earned runs while going the distance.