Kirkwood Baseball

KCC baseball falls at Johnson County

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Kirkwood baseball team suffered a 12-5 loss to Johnson County Community College on Friday.

Johnson County collected 17 hits off three Kirkwood pitchers and led 8-1 before the Eagles put four runs on the scoreboard in the sixth inning.

Johnson County answered with one run in the bottom of the sixth and three more on the seventh.

Colin Kreiter was 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and two RBIs for the Eagles. Matt Paciello tripled and scored. Jack Fitzgerald, Luke Hassman and General McArthur each had one RBI.

Nick Drahozal took the loss, pitching three innings with six hits, one walk, four strikeouts and three earned runs.

Kirkwood           001 004 000 –  5  9 2

Johnson County 012 411 30x – 12 17 0

W – Neller, L – Drahozal.

Wyant will play ball at Kirkwood

Linn-Mar senior Ryan Wyant plans to continue his baseball career at Kirkwood Community College.

Wyant hit .298 this past season with one homer and nine RBIs. He also went 2-2 as a pitcher with a 5.10 ERA in 35 innings.

Wyant hit .312 as a sophomore in 2014 with 17 RBIs. He was 3-3 as a pitcher with a 2.70 ERA.

Drahozal will pitch for Nebraska-Omaha

Nick Drahozal, a Xavier grad who joined the Kirkwood baseball team last season as a walk-on, has signed to play NCAA Division I baseball at Nebraska-Omaha.

Drahozal, a left-hander, compiled a 6-3 record and 2.98 ERA for the Eagles last year as their No. 1 pitcher. He struck out 61 batters in 66.1 innings with only 16 walks.

Jack Fitzgerald from Kirkwood has signed to play at Houston Baptist. Fitzgerald, from Mason City, hit .288 with two home runs and 18 RBIs last season for the Eagles in 36 games.

Drahozal and Fitzgerald will be sophomores at Kirkwood this season. The Eagles finished with a 32-22 record last year.

General McArthur enlists with Kirkwood baseball

The Kirkwood baseball team could have a new commander on the field next season.

His named is General McArthur, a shortstop from Crete-Monee High School in Illinois who has joined the Eagles as a freshman for the 2016 campaign. General McArthur is his legal given name and not a nickname based on the famous World War II commander.

His family obviously admires the original Gen. McArthur, but Kirkwood Coach Todd Rima simply hopes this General McArthur can help the Eagles win some battles in junior college baseball games. Rima also signed Hunter Fiorito, a shortstop from Lake Park, Ill., and will let the two new shortstops battle it out for the starting job.

"I think it's going to be a fun battle to see those two compete to see who's going to play shortstop, but I feel good about both of them," said Rima.

Kirkwood needs a new shortstop after losing Sulliam Reyes to graduation.

Rima has signed 17 new players for the 2016 season, including 12 Iowans who arrive with strong credentials.

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