Tigers complete sweep of Labette with a pair of home wins

Two days after scoring 43 runs in a doubleheader sweep at Labette, the Cowley College baseball team was led by its pitching in a pair of wins on Sunday in Arkansas City. The Tigers won Sunday's first game 10-0 and completed the series sweep with a 7-3 win in the finale.

Cowley (20-8) remains in a tie for first place in the Jayhawk Conference with Kansas City with a record of 11-1, while Labette falls to 9-16 overall and 1-7 in the conference.

"Any sweep of a series is good," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "Luke (Singleton) and Mitchell (Johnson) gave us good starts on the mound and provided us with an opportunity to win both games on Saturday."

The game was scoreless in the opener until the bottom of the fourth inning when Cowley erupted for 10 runs. Kade Sheldon, Keaton Campbell, and Dawson Williams each had a pair of hits in the inning as the Tigers had nine singles, a triple, a double, a walk, and a hit batter in the 10-run fourth.

Sophomore Luke Singleton (3-1) had his best start of the season, allowing only one hit in five innings. The right-hander struck out five and walked two.

The Cardinals' Tatum Watie shut the Tigers out for three innings before being chased from the game in the fourth.

In game two, sophomore shortstop Jadyn McNealy continued to rack up the hits, going 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and two runs scored as he is now batting .439 with an on-base percentage of .540.

"Jadyn has really grown as a hitter and also takes charge in the infield," Burroughs said.

Freshman Ian Luce also played well as he went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in.

Mitchell Johnson gave the Tigers another strong start on the mound as the freshman allowed just two hits and one run in 5 2/3 innings pitched. Cowley led 7-1 before Labette scored a pair of runs late in the game.

The Tigers will host Rose State College (13-16) Tuesday at 1 p.m. before hosting Butler Community College (17-11) in a doubleheader Thursday at 1 p.m.

"The game vs. Rose State will be cold, but each time out is a chance for us to get better," Burroughs said. "And Butler is always a fun series."

Score by inning:

Game one              R H E

Labette 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 1 3

Cowley 0 0 0 10 0 – 10 11 3

Game two                         R H E

Labette 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 – 3 4 2

Cowley 0 0 2 1 0 2 2 0 x – 7 11 0