Tiger baseball team opens conference play with a pair of well-pitched victories

Opening conference play Thursday in Arkansas City, the Cowley College baseball team got solid pitching in both games to help them slip past Coffeyville by scores of 3-2 and 4-1.

"Every game is predicated by how your starting pitchers do," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "I thought all five guys that threw for us did well. It was two good wins to open the conference season."

Cowley, winners of four games in a row, is now 10-6 on the season and 2-0 in the Jayhawk Conference. Coffeyville falls to 6-9 and 0-2 in the conference.

On Thursday, Cowley starting pitcher Iziah Salinas did not allow a hit in the game's first four innings and was cruising along with a 2-0 lead. However, Salinas walked four straight batters in the top of the fifth inning, and was removed from the mound after walking Coffeyville's Ethan Gillespie with the bases loaded.

Barrett Morgan (1-0) relieved Salinas on the mound and allowed the tying run to score on a well-executed suicide squeeze bunt for a base hit by Jaden Hill before getting Carson Miller to ground into a double play to end the inning.

With Morgan tossing 1-2-3 sixth and seventh innings, the Tigers had an opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the seventh. Sophomore Jadyn McNealy led off the seventh by reaching base on an error by Coffeyville shortstop Adrian Dominguez. McNealy then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Coffeyville reliever Si Collins before scoring the winning run on a single by freshman Alex Conover.

The bunt for a hit by Hill was Coffeyville's only hit in the game, while Cowley was limited to four hits by four Red Raven pitchers.

"It was a tough day to hit," Burroughs said. "Our guys have got to learn to slow the game down a bit."

Following the walk-off win of game one, Cowley got a pair of run-scoring singles from designated hitter Dawson Williams and an RBI groundout by catcher Brock Romero to lead 3-0 after four innings of play.

Starting pitcher Cody Airington (1-1) pitched into the fifth inning for the Tigers and was relieved by Cade Perkins, who went on to toss three scoreless innings of relief to go along with three strikeouts. Airington allowed two hits and one run in 4 2/3 innings pitched while striking out six and walking two.

Tiger left-fielder Kade Sheldon singled leading off the bottom of the sixth inning, stole second, advanced to third on a single by Hunter Alvord, and came around to score Cowley's final run on a sacrifice fly by Romero.

Freshman Tallen Bagwell would come on to pitch the final 1 1/3 innings and got Coffeyville's Carson Miller to line out to second with runners at the corner to end the game.

Hitting in the five through seven spots in the batting order, Sheldon, Alvord, and Williams had two hits apiece as the Tigers finished with 11 hits in the victory.

Coffeyville starting pitcher James Wise took the loss after allowing nine hits and three runs in five innings. 

The teams will remain in Arkansas City to play another doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"It's still early March, so we are looking to see improvement and growth from our team each time we go out there and play," Burroughs said.

Game one                         R H E

Coffeyville 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 – 2 1 1

Cowley      0 2 0 0 0 0 1 – 3 4 0

Game two                               R H E

Coffeyville 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 1 7 1

Cowley      0 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 x – 4 11 0