The softball team practicing drills on the JCCC field.

(Photo by: Jasmine Mills)

The Johnson County Community College Cavaliers have had quite a busy and exciting week on both the baseball and softball diamonds, along with spring games and scrimmages for both soccer and volleyball. The Golden Girls dance team also had quite the showing at collegiate nationals. 

To start off the week,  on Sunday, April 12, JCCC Cavaliers baseball thrashed the visiting Baker University Wildcats,  20-1 in a seven-inning game at the Cavaliers Athletic Complex. JCCC had runners reach home in five of the six innings. Freshman right fielder Brayden Giesler (#17) led the offense with two home runs and three runs batted in (RBI) for the day.  On the pitching side, right-hander Lance Alexander (#26) got his first win as a Cavalier, which also happens to be his first collegiate win.   

Following Sunday’s action, which extended the baseball team’s winning streak to 23 straight games, on Tuesday, April 14, head coach Eric Horner’s squad was unanimously ranked No. 1 in the Netting Professionals’ National Junior College Athletic Association for the fifth straight week.   

Meanwhile, head coach Aubree Brattin-Volkens Lady Cavaliers softball team (25-9) moved up from 14th to 12th in the NJCAA week eight softball poll.  

This week, the conference-leading Lady Cavaliers looked to continue their undefeated month of April, having gone 6-0 in April games entering the week. On Thursday, JCCC hosted the Fort Scott Community College (FSCC) Greyhounds, led by head coach Kiana Saint Pierre. This was for a Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) doubleheader matchup. 

  JCCC would win both games of the doubleheader with identical scores of 8-0 for both games. Freshman pitcher Kyleigh Whitehurst (#14) would go the distance,  pitching her first complete game and earning her team the win. Backed up by outstanding defense, Whitehurst only gave up two hits in five scoreless innings. In the first game, the offense was led by sophomore first basemen, Alaryce Millard (#20), who hit her fourth home run of the year, as well as collecting her 21st and 22nd RBI’s for the season.

The second game remained scoreless until the bottom of the inning when the Cavaliers’ offense woke up for three runs. From that point on, the game was no contest as pitcher Elsa Carrillo pitched six scoreless innings, earning her ninth win of the season. Freshman Kennedy Glassford (#11) hit her second home run of the day and her ninth overall, in addition to hitting her first triple of the conference season. 

JCCC extended their undefeated April to eight games and their overall winning streak to fourteen straight games, enabling the Lady Cavs to stay atop the KJCCC with a perfect record of 12-0 and 27-9 overall.

Back over on the baseball diamond, your No. 1-ranked Cavaliers had another outstanding week. On Thursday, local rival and KJCCC foe, the  Kansas City Kansas Community College Blue Devils, made the short 20-mile drive south on I-435 to face off against the Cavaliers. The Blue Devils, who entered the series 31-12, proved to be no challenge for the Cavaliers, who entered Thursday with a record of 42-2. 

JCCC swept the home portion of the series Thursday, with the combined score of both games ending up being 30-5.

In the first inning of game one, the Cavalier batters tore up the Blue Devils’  starting pitcher Caden Howell, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first and knocking him out of the game. Following Howell’s exit, the Cavaliers pieced together six more runs throughout the rest of the game, giving game one a final score of 12-1. The story was much different for JCCC starter Liam Roche (#21), who pitched an absolute gem with seven strikeouts to only one walk, along with only giving up one run in five innings.    

Game two of the doubleheader was powered by the long ball from JCCC batters. In an 18-4 victory, three different Cavalier batters combined to hit five home runs. Freshman center fielder Ryan Bradford’s (#29) breakout season continued, hitting his 27th and 28th home runs in Thursday’s second game and adding his 29th home run in Saturday’s doubleheader at KCK. Sophomore utility player Collin Coonrad (#4) homered as well. However, the star of the second game offense was  freshman shortstop Lukas Wilson (#23), who had two homers and six RBIs in a massive breakout game against the Devils. 

Johnson County shifted from home team to visitors on Saturday afternoon, taking the 20 minute drive up I-435 to Kansas City Kansas Community college and winning game one 7-1 and game two 20-15. Being the visiting team proved to have slowed the Cavaliers’ offense down somewhat in the first game, with the team completing seven runs and remaining in a save situation until the top of the seventh in a 7-1 victory. In the second game Saturday afternoon, Kansas City’s batters gave the Cavalier’s pitching fits, scoring 15 runs in the first seven innings of the game. Freshman Jack Jones (#5) proved to be the game changer with his clutch run double in the eighth. He was helped by home runs from both Bradford and Wilson, in addition to second baseman Briggs Roe (#10), who must’ve been seeing double all game, as he hit three doubles in the second game.  (JCCC Athletics)

The sweep of Kansas City Kansas extended the baseball team’s school record winning streak to 30 straight games. Pushing their record to 46-2, the Cavs are maintaining their number one ranking in the country.