Tigers win a pair of road games, take three of four against KCK

Following a split of a doubleheader against No. 11-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College on Thursday in Arkansas City, the Cowley College baseball team picked up an important sweep of a pair of games played Saturday in Kansas City, KS, by scores of 4-3 and 5-1, as the Tigers won three of the four games played in the series.

Cowley (26-11) moves into second place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, one game behind conference-leading Johnson County (15-1). Kansas City (29-6) falls to third place in the conference with a record of 16-4.

"This was big for us to sweep the games on Saturday and take the series against a really good team," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

In Saturday's opener, Cowley led 3-0 before Kansas City got a home run from Brady Patterson in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game at 3-3. The homer came off Tiger starting pitcher Luke Singleton, who allowed four hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings pitched.

The score would remain tied 3-3 as Cowley freshman Tallen Bagwell came on in relief of Singleton and was nearly unhittable. Bagwell allowed just one hit in 4 2/3 innings while striking out eight without walking a batter.

"Tallen took over the game and gave us a chance to finally score a run and win," Burroughs said.

With Bagwell dealing on the mound, the game remained tied until the top of the 11^th inning. Hunter Alvord hit a one-out single, advanced to second on a two-out walk by Jarrett Flaggert, and came around to score the go-ahead run following back-to-back walks to Ian Luce and Cade Baldridge.

Barrett Morgan relieved Bagwell to pitch the bottom of the 11^th and retired the side in order as Cowley held on for the 4-3 win. Morgan is now 2-0 on the season with a team-high five saves.

Jadyn McNealy and Cole Martin had two hits apiece as the Tigers out-hit KCK 10-5.

In the nightcap, Cowley freshman Mitchell Johnson pitched into the fifth inning and left with the game tied at 1-1.

The Tigers used a three-run sixth inning to go in front 4-1. Dane Harvey had an RBI double, and Keaton Campbell and Breck Romero had run-scoring singles in the inning.

After Cole Abbott recorded the final two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Alex Conover (1-2) took over on the mound and struck out six of the seven batters he faced to help seal the 5-1 victory.

Romero went 3-for-3 with a run batted in and a run scored, and Cowley out-hit the Blue Devils 9-2.

Cowley will face rival Seminole State College on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Seminole, OK. The Trojans, winners of seven games in a row, are 24-13 on the season.

"There is never a day off this time of year," Burroughs said. "We want to continue to build up our bullpen and lengthen our starters a tick. The guys need to keep building on what we have been doing."

Score by inning:

Game three                              R H E

Cowley 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 4 10 0

KCK     0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 3 5 0

Game four                   R H E

Cowley 0 0 1 0 0 3 1 – 5 9 1

KCK     0 0 0 0 1 0 0 – 1 2 2