With their spot secured in the Region VI, Division II playoffs, Allen County Community College’s Red Devils got the job done at home Friday. The Red Devil softball team won its final two regular season games and honored its sophomore players.
The Red Devils powered past visiting Ottawa University’s junior varsity 9-1 in six innings and 10-2 in five innings.
Allen County has put together back-to-back 38-win seasons. The Red Devils finished 38-16 this year after going 38-20 a year ago.
“I’ve had teams that have won 40 games but never a group that has put back-to-back seasons like this before,” said Ed Wilkerson, ACCC head softball coach. “The season went pretty well and this team over-achieved my expectations.
“Last year’s team had a lot more offensive firepower than this year’s. But this year, our team did it differently with pitching, defense and timely hitting.”
Allen County finished Jayhawk Eastern Division/Region VI, Division I play earlier in the week. The Red Devils are 16-10 in Jayhawk East play, tied for fourth with Pratt.
But more importantly, the Red Devils are 20-10 in Region VI play, which puts them in a tie for fifth with Johnson County. Going to a head-to-head tiebreaker, Johnson County is likely to get the No. 5 seed and Allen County the No. 6 seed in the playoffs because the Cavalier defeated the Red Devils during the season.
Both teams will host best 2-of-3 series in the playoffs this weekend.
“We just have to wait a day or two for other teams to finish play to see which team we host,” Wilkerson said.
Allen County exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on Friday’s opener. Ottawa JV scored a run on an error and two hits in the top of the inning.
In the sixth, Jenna Sigg walked and stole second. With one gone, Lenzie Boring’s single drove in the run to end the game as a run-rule contest.
Boring was the winning pitcher, allowing five hits and one walk. She struck out six.
Sigg had a single and a triple in the game while Kylie Taylor had a single and a double. Hitting two singles each were Kelsey Walters, Callie Umholtz, Boring and Kelci Owens. Erin Schwant and Brianne Smedley each had an RBI single.
The Red Devils were up 5-3 on Ottawa in the second game. They scored five runs on seven straight singles in the fifth to run-rule the Lady Braves again.
Sigg and Tesla Allison each went 3-for-3 at the plate. Sigg had two singles and a triple. Allison hit three singles.
Walters hit a two-run home run in the first inning and had a single later in the game. Alex Hill had two singles. Schwant, Umholtz, Owens and Taylor each had a single.
Hill was the winning pitcher, giving up seven hits. She struck out four.
The Red Devils will host their second straight playoff series. Last year Allen County lost to Kansas City, Kan., Community College 2-1 in games.
All three games were played on the same day and were close. Kansas City won the first game 1-0 then Allen County took a 3-0 win. In the deciding game, KCK won 5-4.
“We just have to stay focused this week and not worry about which team we’ll play. If we play our game this weekend, we should be able to move on in the playoffs,” Wilkerson said.
He said teams have the option of playing all the games on one day or maybe two on Saturday and one on Sunday, if needed.
The ACCC playoff series schedule will be decided once the pairings are set, he said.
ACCC softball team wraps up regular season
