The Allen Community College Red Devils head into their next stretch of Jayhawk Conference games on a four-game winning streak after sweeping Southeast Friday.
A grand slam by sophomore first baseman Jena Hendrix shut the door on a potential comeback from the Bobcats as Allen improved to 9-12 ahead of hosting Hesston (2-9) Thursday.
“These were good wins heading into the conference next week. We’re looking forward to that,” Allen coach Nicole Peters said.
Sophomore pitcher Camrynn Yardley pitched a five-hit shutout for the victory in the opener. She tallied three strikeouts without giving up a walk while tying sophomore shortstop Bailee Campbell for the team lead in RBIs with two each.
Hendrix put the Red Devils in on the scoreboard in game one with a sacrifice fly, then Yardley picked up her RBIs with a double in the third and later scored on a fielding error. Freshman Casie Schaffer extended Allen’s lead to 5-0 with a double in the fourth inning, then Hendrix made it 6-0 on a fifth-inning home run.
Moments later, an RBI double by freshman catcher Makayla Hirschmann set up Campbell to seal the win via 9-0 mercy-rule by the fifth inning after she drove in Hirschmann and sophomore outfielder Kennedy Mead on a single.
Campbell finished the game with a team-leading four hits while hitting 4 of 4, followed by Mead who batted 2 of 2.
“It was consistent (improvement) throughout the lineup,” Peters said. “They picked each other up. We had a goal to score every inning, and I think we did that in game two. Hopefully, it’s practice rolling over into games. We still had a few miscues, but we’ll clean it up going into conference.”
Still fresh from the early stoppage in game one, Yardley returned to the mound for another round with the Bobcats. This time, she tallied five strikeouts over five innings. She drew more walks than she gave up while batting a flawless 1 of 1 with a trio of walks and making the most of her time on base with three runs.
Hendrix picked up the first pair of her team-leading six RBIs when her hard chopper drove in Campbell and Schaffer. Freshman third baseman Hope Sanchez and Mead took the lead to 4-0 on a pair of RBI singles.
Second baseman Paxton Meyer’s RBI grounder opened a three-run third with Mead and Sanchez also once again hitting pay-dirt. Campbell and Schaffer extended the lead to 9-2 after the pair stole home in the third inning. The Red Devils closed in on a mercy-rule 10-2 with an RBI single before a Hendrix grand slam sealed it.
“This prepared us. We got some feel-good (stories) before we open conference next Thursday. We wanted to get some quality at-bats in,” Peters said.
The Red Devils return to the diamond Thursday, when they host the Hesston Larks for a 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. doubleheader.
Allen 7, Southeast 0
Allen AB R H RBI
Campbell 4 2 4 2
Schaffer 2 0 1 1
Yardley 3 1 1 2
Hendrix 3 1 1 1
Meyer 3 0 1 0
Spreer 3 0 0 0
Sanchez 3 1 1 1
Hirschmann 2 2 1 1
Carswell 1 0 0 0
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO
Yardley 5.0 5 0 0 0 3
Allen 14, Southeast 2
Allen AB R H RBI
Campbell 4 3 3 0
Schaffer 4 3 3 0
Yardley 1 3 1 0
Hendrix 4 3 3 6
Meyer 3 0 1 1
Sanchez 2 1 0 0
Mead 3 0 3 3
Hirschmann 2 0 1 0
Beckley 1 0 0 0
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO
Yardley 5 2 2 2 0 5
Southeast stats not available by press time.
