Lady Tiger softball team races past Cloud in run-rule wins

Fresh off breaking into the national rankings for the first time this season, the No. 20-ranked Cowley College softball team continued its strong play with a pair of run-rule victories at Cloud County Tuesday in Concordia, KS. The Lady Tigers needed only five innings to win both games by scores of 17-4 and 14-6.

With the victories, Cowley (25-9) closes within one-game of conference-leading Highland with a conference record of 15-3.

On Tuesday, Cowley led game one by a score of 3-1 before erupting for 14 runs in the top of the fourth inning. The Lady Tigers had 10 hits in the inning, including two apiece from Shelby Winfield, Maci Cole, and Tatyana Curry.

Winfield went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and three runs driven in, while Cole went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBI. Curry added two hits and two runs scored.

"Shelby and Tatyana did a great job of keeping their defense pressured, both of them came up big with their teammates in scoring position," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said. "They did a great job of executing their game plan on the day. Maci was great as well executing and for the bottom half of the line up to be sharp and getting on only helps our top half come through with execution."   

Ashlynn Mercer (15-4) went the first four innings for Cowley and allowed two runs, while striking out five.

In game two, Cowley would score in each inning and got a home run from Laramie Neff in a six-run third inning. Neff had three hits as did designated hitter Sydney Price, who drove in three runs in the win.

Catcher Alivia Lange led Cowley's 19-hit attack by going 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and three runs scored.

"Sydney and Alivia made great adjustments from game one and had really strong at bats the second game," Hoyt said. "Alivia and Syd both have a ton of power and if they can come through for us in the middle of the lineup we are a tough team to beat."

Kennedy Toothman (3-3) earned the win as she went the first three innings and allowed three runs, while striking out four.

Cowley will play a doubleheader at No. 15-ranked Neosho County Thursday at 2 p.m.

"Neosho always plays us tough and highly energized. We have to be the better team on both sides of the game," Hoyt said. "We have a step in focused on defense and ready to execute when we have runners on."

Score by inning:

Game one                   R H E

Cowley 0 3 0 (14) 0 – 17 14 3

Cloud   0 0 1 1 2     - 4 6 2

Game two               R H E

Cowley 1 1 6 4 2 – 14 19 1

Cloud   2 0 1 0 3 – 6 10 3