Tiger baseball team captures fifth straight conference title

Give me five! The No. 7-ranked Cowley College baseball team made things suspenseful but finished off a fifth consecutive Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division title on the final game of the regular season. After splitting a pair of games against Kansas City Kansas Community College Friday in Arkansas City, the Tigers dropped the first game of Saturday's doubleheader at Kansas City to fall into a tie for first place in the conference with one game remaining. With the conference title in the balance, freshman right-hander Carson Pierce allowed just one hit in five innings pitched before Aaron Weber, Miguel Fulgencio, and Isaac Stebens combined to throw four innings of hitless relief in the conference clinching 7-0 win over the Blue Devils.

"You never know how someone will react to pitching in a big game like that, but Carson took control of the game early and was extremely good to watch," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

Cowley (44-9) finished with a conference record of 27-5 as they edged Kansas City (26-6) for the conference title.

"The guys knew what was at stake that final game and reached down deep to get the win," Burroughs said.

Prior to Saturday's heroics, Cowley sophomore Grant Adler opened the series by throwing six scoreless innings in a 6-0 win over the Blue Devils.

Cowley would then drop the next two games against Kansas City by scores of 9-4 and 6-4 before winning the final game of the four-game series.

"It was a tough series and not easy playing back-to-back days," Burroughs said.

The Tigers did not let the loss of Saturday's opening game deflate them as they responded by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning in the series finale. Ty Hammack's two-run double highlighted the four-run first.

With the Tiger pitchers dealing on the mound, Cowley tacked on single runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings. Hammack and leftfielder Jansen Reeder each went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in.

Cowley, the top-seed at the Plains Regional Tournament, will host 16^th-seed Seward County in a best of three series beginning Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Arkansas City. The Saints have struggled to a record of 14-40 on the season.

"In the playoffs it usually comes down to who plays well and does the little things to win games," Burroughs said. "If we stick to our plan and do what we are supposed to do, we should do well."

Game one                          R H E

Kansas City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 2 0

Cowley        2 1 1 0 1 1 x – 6 10 1

Game two                                 R H E

Kansas City 0 1 0 0 2 1 2 1 2 – 9 10 0

Cowley        1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 – 4 8 3

Game three                        R H E

Cowley        2 0 0 0 2 0 0 – 4 8 1

Kansas City 4 0 0 0 2 0 x – 6 10 0

Game four                                R H E

Cowley        4 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 – 7 9 0

Kansas City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 1 2