Central Florida defeats Cowley 8-2 in opening game of JUCO World Series

Playing in front of 5,877 fans at the 2022 Alpine Bank JUCO World Series played Saturday morning at Stocker Stadium's Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, CO, the No. 7-seeded Cowley College Tigers never got the bats going in an 8-2 loss to fourth-seeded College of Central Florida.

Making their first appearance at the JUCO World Series since 1998, the Patriots did not show any signs of nerves.

"We just could not get anything going offensively," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

In a matchup of starting pitchers that sported unbeaten records of 11-0, it was Central Florida's Landon Ginn that out-dueled Cowley's Grant Adler.

Ginn allowed only two hits and one run in 6 1/3 innings pitched. Ginn struck out eight and walked only two as he improved his record to 12-0.

"You got to tip your cap to that guy," Burroughs said.

The Patriots (47-15) advance to play Monday night at 7:30 p.m.

Central Florida struck first when the second batter of the game, John Marant, belted a solo home run over the left field wall. The homer for Morant was his 11^th of the season.

Jackson Taylor made it two solo homers in two innings as he belted a pitch from Adler over the right field wall.

After retiring the first six batters he faced, Central Florida starting pitcher Landon Ginn surrendered a leadoff double to Ty Hammack to start the top of the third inning. Three batters later, Bryce Madron singled home Hammack with the Tigers' first run of the game.

Cowley starting pitcher Grant Adler (11-1) had his shortest outing of the season as he was relieved by Aaron Weber after giving up back-to-back singles in the bottom of the third inning. Adler allowed six hits and three runs in two plus innings pitched.

Weber allowed a one-out run-scoring single to Nicholas Calero but limited the damage to only one run in the inning.

The score would remain 3-1 until the bottom of the sixth inning when Carson Bayne led off with a double and came around to score on a one-out triple by Kevin Kilpatrick.

The triple by Kilpatrick chased Weber from the game as he was relieved by left-hander Brigden Parker, who surrendered a two-out double by Caleb Cali to score Kilpatrick with the Patriots' fifth run of the game.

Weber tried to keep Cowley within striking distance as he allowed five hits and two runs in 3 1/3 innings.

Chance Condit came on in relief of Parker with runners at first and second and two outs and promptly allowed a three-run homer to Edrick Felix to make the score 8-1.

The Tigers would scratch across a run in the top of the ninth, but it was not enough as they fell by the score of 8-2.

Central Florida out-hit Cowley 15-3. The Patriots hit three home runs and had three players with three hits apiece.

Hammack led the Tigers at the plate, reaching base all four times as he singled, doubled, and walked twice.

"I was pretty locked in at the plate and was able to see a lot of pitches," Hammack said.

Cowley (50-10) will play again Sunday at 2 p.m. MST against the loser of the Walters State vs. Harford College contest.

Sophomore centerfielder Bryce Madron, who had Cowley's only other hit in the game, has been in this situation before and believes the Tigers will come back out ready to play on Sunday.

"We have got to put this game behind us, come out tomorrow and have a crisp BP (batting practice) and play better," Madron said.

Score by inning:                    R H E

Cowley     0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 2 3 0

C. Florida 1 1 1 0 0 5 0 0 x – 8 15 1