Lady Tiger softball team opens 4-0 in Jayhawk Conference

Getting strong pitching and timely hitting, the Cowley College softball team opened the conference slate with four home wins. The Lady Tigers run-ruled Cloud County in both games of Thursday's doubleheader, 10-2 and 8-0, before slipping past Neosho County 7-5 and 3-2 on Saturday.

"This is a great way to open conference. I like the energy and focus we are bringing into these games," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said.

In Thursday's opening game against Cloud County, Cowley got home runs from Kayla McClellan and Sydney Price in the 10-2 win. Ashlyn Mercer went the first four innings on the mound to earn the win, while Price tossed a 1-2-3 fifth inning to finish off the victory.

Cowley rode Mercer to another win in game two as the right-hander struck out 10 in a five-inning shutout of the T-Birds. Mercer allowed only three hits and no walks

Price homered for the second straight game and drove in five runs, while Maci Cole capped the run-rule victory with a two-run blast.

Returning to the diamond on Saturday, Cowley and Neosho County were deadlocked at 5-5 after four innings of play. Run scoring doubles by Mya Chapman and Laramie Neff broke the tie in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Price, who relieved Mercer (8-3) on the mound in the top of the sixth inning, tossed two hitless innings of relief to record the save.

McClellan homered twice and drove in three, while Tye North added her second homer of the season.

"Coming into the game we knew Neosho would bring tons of energy and play us strong," Hoyt said. "However, as a team we did a great job of responding throughout the doubleheader."

Price (2-0) capped a stellar weekend by striking out a career-high 12 batters in a 3-2 win of the series finale.

"Our defense and pitching got us out of several jams with people in scoring position, so it was great to see our pitchers trust the defense and our pitchers step up and get a big strike out," Hoyt said.

Maci Cole finished the weekend with a bang as she led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a game-winning homer. McClellan also homered again as she and Cole are tied for the team lead in home runs with six apiece.

Cowley's regularly scheduled doubleheader at the Tabor College JV on Monday has been postponed. The Lady Tigers will now prepare to play a home doubleheader against Hesston College Thursday beginning at 2 p.m.

"As a team we need to continue to think one opponent at a time as we still have a lot of conference games ahead of us, but this start is huge for our team's confidence," Hoyt said.

Score by inning on Thursday:

Game one             R H E

Cloud  0 0 0 2 0 – 2 3 4

Cowley 2 1 4 3 x – 10 8 0

Game two             R H E

Cloud  0 0 0 0 0 – 0 3 4

Cowley 3 0 0 0 5 – 8 9 2

Score by inning on Saturday:

Game one                    R H E

Neosho 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 – 5 6 1

Cowley 1 1 3 0 2 0 x – 7 7 2

Game two                    R H E

Neosho 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 – 2 5 1

Cowley  0 0 1 0 0 1 1 – 3 8 0