Johnson County continues Lady Tigers skid with a sweep of doubleheader
In a battle for first place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, the No. 7-ranked Johnson County Cavaliers came into Arkansas City on Monday and swept a doubleheader from the No. 18-ranked Cowley College softball team. Johnson scored three runs in the seventh inning of game one to defeat Cowley 4-3 before run-ruling the Lady Tigers 15-7 in game two.
In four days, the Lady Tigers went from first place in the conference to fourth place. After dropping five of its last six games, Cowley (38-15) is now 15-5 in the conference, while Johnson County (37-7) now leads the Jayhawk East with a record of 16-2.
On Monday, the Lady Tigers got a strong pitching performance from freshman Mikah Vann in game one and led 3-1 heading into the seventh inning. However, Johnson County's Izzy Carter led off the top of the seventh with a ground-rule double, and Jaylee Jefferson followed with a game-tying two-run homer.
Vann (18-6) would then walk Kaia Cordill and be relieved on the mound by Jaiden Swanson, who allowed a pair of hits and the go-ahead run to score before recording the final out of the inning.
Johnson County starting pitcher Maggie McNally then retired the side in order in the bottom half of the inning as she allowed only three hits in the complete game victory.
"I really thought we had opportunities in game one to keep the pressure on them, but we just didn't," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said. "We allowed Johnson that momentum change in the seventh and they took advantage. We are better hitters than what we showed in game one, and that's where we have to make quicker adjustments."
Swanson (18-8) started game two and struggled mightily with her command, walking six batters in a five-run first inning for the Lady Cavaliers.
Trialing 6-0, Cowley cut its deficit in half with a three-run second inning.
The Lady Tigers would pull within 6-4 in the bottom of the third inning on Emily Louderback's 18th home run of the season. However, Johnson County would score four runs in the fifth inning and five more in the sixth to win 15-7.
With Vann back on the mound for the Lady Tigers, Cordill hit a two-run homer to cap the scoring for the Lady Cavaliers.
Along with Louderback's home run, Shayne Roberts and Lyric Perry also homered for Cowley, but it was not enough as Lady Tiger pitchers combined to walk 11 batters in the nightcap.
Cowley will look to turn things around when they play a doubleheader at Labette on Wednesday at 2 p.m. The Cardinals (18-24) have lost six games in a row and are 8-10 in the conference.
"We have hit a tough last couple outings where we have had to raise our level of competition, which in times we have and times we haven't," Hoyt said. "Going forward, we got to get back to playing with that little edge to us and know that everyone wants to beat us. We just need to know our strengths and work through our adjustments quicker."
Score by inning:
Game one R H E
Johnson 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 – 4 8 1
Cowley 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 – 3 3 1
Game two R H E
Johnson 5 1 0 0 4 5 – 15 10 3
Cowley 0 3 1 0 2 1 – 7 7 2