Tigers drop a pair of games at conference-leading Johnson County

The Cowley College baseball team's quest for a sixth straight conference title hit a bump in the road with a pair of losses at No. 6-ranked Johnson County on Thursday in Overland Park, KS. The Tigers lost game one 9-4 and then fell by a score of 11-10 in the nightcap.

Cowley is now 27-15 overall and 17-5 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, while Johnson County improves its record to 39-7 overall and 23-3 in the conference.

"We are disappointed about not winning and need to perform better on Saturday," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

Game one started off promising for the Tigers as sophomore Ty Hammack led off the game with his 11^th  home run of the season. However, Johnson County answered with a two-run homer by Cooper Combs in the bottom of the first and a solo shot by Rhett Hendricks in the second to lead 3-1.

After Cowley tied the game with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning, the Cavaliers would chase Tiger starting pitcher Chance Cox from the game by plating four runs in the bottom of the fourth. A pair of Cowley errors made two of the four runs unearned.

Keaton Campbell drove in his second run of the game with a single in the top of the sixth inning, but it was not enough as Johnson County held on for the 9-4 win.

Freshman designated hitter Cole Martin had two of Cowley's seven hits in the loss. Cox (3-1) allowed seven hits and six earned runs

Johnson County starting pitcher Luc Fladda went the distance on the mound, striking out five and scattering seven hits.

In game two, Johnson County scored three runs off Cowley starter Cade Perkins in the bottom of the second inning as they raced out to the early lead.

After retiring the first nine batters he faced, Johnson County starting pitcher Cole Koonce was tagged for six runs in the top of the fourth inning. Hammack had two of Cowley's six hits in the inning, while Eaden Holt had a two-run single.

Cowley remained in front by a score of 7-5 before the Cavaliers put up a six-run inning of their own to lead 11-7.

The Tigers would score two runs in the eighth to cut its deficit to 11-9 and loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the ninth inning. Sophomore Haden O'Toole hit a sacrifice fly that scored Campbell to make the score 11-10. However, Hammack and Jadyn McNealy followed with back-to-back groundouts to strand a pair of runners in the 11-10 defeat.

Hammack, O'Toole, and Cooper Schwindt had two hits a piece for the Tigers.

The teams will wrap up their four-game series by playing a pair of games in Arkansas City Saturday at 1 p.m.

"We have an opportunity to get back to even in the series," Burroughs said. "We need to put yesterday behind us, learn from it, and look forward to the opportunity to play them again on Saturday."

Score by inning:

Game one                     R H E

Cowley  1 0 0 2 0 1 0 – 4 7 2

Johnson 2 1 0 4 1 1 x – 9 11 1

Game two                            R H E

Cowley  0 0 0 6 0 1 0 2 1 – 10 11 1

Johnson 0 3 0 0 1 1 6 0 x – 11 10 0