Tiger baseball team continues road dominance with wins at KCK

The No. 12-ranked Cowley College baseball team improved its record to 12-1 away from home after sweeping a doubleheader at Kansas City Kansas Community College on Tuesday. The Tigers broke out the bats for an 11-6 win in game one, and then used stellar pitching to shutout the Blue Devils 4-0 in game two.

"For some reason we have done pretty well on the road," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "It was good to get two wins."

Cowley is now 21-4 overall and 12-2 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. With the losses, Kansas City falls to 10-10 overall and 5-7 in the conference.

Staked to a 4-0 lead after one half inning of play, Tiger starting pitcher Garrett VanDeventer failed to record an out in the bottom of the first inning as he was charged with three runs.

Boston Dowd relieved VanDeventer on the mound and tossed four scoreless innings of relief. Dowd allowed only one hit, while striking out four and walking one.

"Boston did a good job of stabilizing the game for us," Burroughs said.

Leading 6-3 in the top of the fourth inning, Cowley got a two-run homer from designated hitter Blake Robertson to increase its lead to 8-3.

With the Tigers holding on to a 9-6 lead heading into the final inning of play, Cowley got a two-run double from catcher Gus Freeman to cap the 11-6 victory. Freeman is now batting .426 on the season.

First baseman Michelle Artzberger continues to mash at the plate as he went 5-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs batted in. Artzberger is now batting .468 with a team-leading 40 RBI.

Blake Robertson also played well as he homered and scored four runs. The homer was the fifth of the season for Robertson.

In game two, Cowley would score two runs in the top of the first inning and add runs in the second and third inning as they scored all four of its runs in the first three innings of play.

That would be more than enough run support for freshman Racer Felter as the right-hander struck out six and allowed only two hits in six innings to improve his record to 2-0 on the season.

"Racer gave us a stellar start and threw his tail off," Burroughs said.

Isaac Stebens retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the 4-0 win. Stebens lowered his earned run average to 0.73 in 12 1/3 innings pitched.

"Isaac has really stepped up and commands the zone really well," Burroughs said.

Bryce Madron and Robertson each went 3-for-4 with a run batted in as Cowley out-hit Kansas City 12-2. Madron is now batting .412, while Robertson raised his average to .400.

Cowley will return home to play a doubleheader Thursday at 1 p.m. against Coffeyville Community College. The Red Ravens are 11-11 overall and 3-5 in the Jayhawk East. After staring the season with a 3-9 record, Coffeyville has won eight of its past 10 games.

"Coffeyville has been playing really well so it should be a good series," Burroughs said.

Score by inning:

Game one                     R H E

Cowley 4 2 0 2 1 0 2 – 11 14 1

KCK     3 0 0 0 0 3 0 –  6 9 1

Game two                    R H E

Cowley 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 – 4 12 0

KCK     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 2 0