Tigers win a pair of road games, take three of four against KCK
Following a split of a doubleheader against No. 11-ranked Kansas City Kansas Community College on Thursday in Arkansas City, the Cowley College baseball team picked up an important sweep of a pair of games played Saturday in Kansas City, KS, by scores of 4-3 and 5-1, as the Tigers won three of the four games played in the series.
Cowley (26-11) moves into second place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, one game behind conference-leading Johnson County (15-1). Kansas City (29-6) falls to third place in the conference with a record of 16-4.
"This was big for us to sweep the games on Saturday and take the series against a really good team," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.
In Saturday's opener, Cowley led 3-0 before Kansas City got a home run from Brady Patterson in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game at 3-3. The homer came off Tiger starting pitcher Luke Singleton, who allowed four hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings pitched.
The score would remain tied 3-3 as Cowley freshman Tallen Bagwell came on in relief of Singleton and was nearly unhittable. Bagwell allowed just one hit in 4 2/3 innings while striking out eight without walking a batter.
"Tallen took over the game and gave us a chance to finally score a run and win," Burroughs said.
With Bagwell dealing on the mound, the game remained tied until the top of the 11th inning. Hunter Alvord hit a one-out single, advanced to second on a two-out walk by Jarrett Flaggert, and came around to score the go-ahead run following back-to-back walks to Ian Luce and Cade Baldridge.
Barrett Morgan relieved Bagwell to pitch the bottom of the 11th and retired the side in order as Cowley held on for the 4-3 win. Morgan is now 2-0 on the season with a team-high five saves.
Jadyn McNealy and Cole Martin had two hits apiece as the Tigers out-hit KCK 10-5.
In the nightcap, Cowley freshman Mitchell Johnson pitched into the fifth inning and left with the game tied at 1-1.
The Tigers used a three-run sixth inning to go in front 4-1. Dane Harvey had an RBI double, and Keaton Campbell and Breck Romero had run-scoring singles in the inning.
After Cole Abbott recorded the final two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Alex Conover (1-2) took over on the mound and struck out six of the seven batters he faced to help seal the 5-1 victory.
Romero went 3-for-3 with a run batted in and a run scored, and Cowley out-hit the Blue Devils 9-2.
Cowley will face rival Seminole State College on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Seminole, OK. The Trojans, winners of seven games in a row, are 24-13 on the season.
"There is never a day off this time of year," Burroughs said. "We want to continue to build up our bullpen and lengthen our starters a tick. The guys need to keep building on what we have been doing."
Score by inning:
Game three R H E
Cowley 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 4 10 0
KCK 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 3 5 0
Game four R H E
Cowley 0 0 1 0 0 3 1 – 5 9 1
KCK 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 – 1 2 2