The Allen Red Devils ride into their final regular season doubleheader on fire with a three-game win streak following Monday’s sweep of Cloud County Community College.
Having won six of their last eight games, the Red Devils are tied for third with Kansas City Kansas Community College in the Jayhawk Conference.
Allen Coach Nicole Peters likes where her team is going.
“We fought back and, given the conditions, I’m very proud of them,” Peters said. “We started off game one a little slow. The delay had a little bit of an impact, but we fought back and got the win.”
Peters has reason to be confident. After edging a deceivingly talented Cloud County team by 7-6 in the opener, the Red Devils uncorked an 11-6 victory in the nightcap with five runs coming in the sixth inning.
The Red Devils started Game 1 trailing by 4. The women got on the scoreboard with an RBI double from senior third baseman Hope Sanchez. The Red Devils continued chipping away at Cloud’s lead with a third inning RBI single from freshman second baseman Addie Keys, then rallied to take the lead in the sixth inning when sophomore outfielder Ella McCammon hit a sacrifice fly that put Allen on top for the final time.
Freshman Andrea Ruby picked up the win, tallying a strikeout while allowing six runs on 11hits and two walks. Freshman shortstop Taylor Damme had a team-leading two hits.
In the nightcap, Keys proved her prowess on the pitcher’s mound and in the batter’s box while tying sophomore first baseman Kalyse Abernathy for the team lead in RBIs with three each. Keys tallied five strikeouts over seven innings while allowing five runs off nine hits and three walks.
Trailing by two after a scoreless first and second inning, Allen seemed in for another nailbiter until Keys’ two-RBI double tied the game. Abernathy picked up her first two RBIs of the evening after plating a pair of runners with a grounder. Allen added two more runs in the fourth off RBIs from McCammon and freshman outfielder Kara Walker. Cloud cut Allen’s lead to a run in the fifth. The Red Devils responded with five unanswered runs to secure the win.
McCammon was nearly flawless in the batter’s box, leading Allen in hits while successful in 4 of 5 at-bats. Freshman Harper Desmarteau, an Iola alum, sophomore catcher Makayla Hirschmann, Keys and Walker had two hits each. With the wins, the Red Devils improved their record to 19-24 overall and 12-6 in conference play. The Red Devils wrap up the regular season on the road Thursday against the Coffeyville Ravens (14-28, 6-12).
“I like to take it game by game, so we’re just focusing on Coffeyville before we look at the postseason.”
First pitches for Thursday’s doubleheader are 1 p.m. for the opener and 3 p.m. for the finale.
