Tiger Magic lives on as Cowley baseball team wins extra inning thriller

A three-hour weather delay, the game being postponed from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, and being down to its final strike did not deter the top-seeded Cowley College baseball team from rallying to defeat eighth-seeded Butler Community College 9-8 in the Region VI Tournament played at Kansas State University's Tointon Family Stadium.

The Tigers came back from four different deficits to win on freshman Haden O'Toole's two-run single in the bottom of the 11^th inning.

The game, which began Tuesday at 4:30 p.m., resumed Wednesday morning with the score tied 7-7 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

The score would remain tied until Butler scored a run in the top of the 11^th inning off Cowley closer Isaac Stebens (2-1), who was on for his third inning of relief. Stebens struck out seven as Cowley pitchers combined to strike out 14 Butler batters.

Trailing 8-7, Cowley got singles from Logan Vaughan and Ty Hammack and had runners at second and third with two outs. Down to its final strike, O'Toole sent a pitch back up the middle to score pinch-runner Cade Stephenson and Hammack with the winning run.

The Tiger players rushed the field to mob O'Toole as they advance to face fifth-seeded Johnson County (44-15) later Wednesday night around 8 p.m.

Cowley (47-9) was led by shortstop David Herring going 4-for-6 with a run batted in, while Vaughan and O'Toole had three hits apiece. The Tigers out-hit Butler 17-14 and benefitted from four Grizzly errors.

Andrew Wisner (2-3) allowed three hits and two runs in 3 1/3 innings pitched as he was saddled with the loss.

All games at the Region VI Tournament can be seen at kjccc.org/sports-network.

Score by inning:                       R H E

Butler   0 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 1 – 8 14 4

Cowley 0 0 3 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 2 – 9 17 1