Tiger baseball team wins sub-regional, advances to play at WSU
The third-seeded Cowley College baseball team advanced to play at the Plains District/Region VI Tournament held May 15-19 at Wichita State University's Eck Stadium by winning its best-of-three sub-regional against 14th-seeded Colby. The Tigers followed up a 14-4 win over Colby on Thursday with a 13-2 victory over the Trojans on Friday.
Cowley (41-16), winners of six games in a row, will face sixth-seed Dodge City (38-21) on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the first game of the double-elimination tournament.
Colby finishes the season with a record of 14-44.
On Friday, Colby got a run-scoring single from second baseman Alex Ellert to lead the Tigers 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning.
Cowley would tie the game at 2-2 when Seth Dandridge singled home Keaton Campbell in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The game would not stay tied for long as the Tigers busted the game open with an eight-run fifth inning.
Kade Sheldon, who homered in the second inning, had a two-run single in the eight-run fifth, while Jadyn McNealy and Campbell also had two-run hits.
The Tigers tacked on three more runs in the sixth inning and out-hit the Trojans 16-5.
"We had some good swings and did a good job of staying with it and not panicking when the game was close," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.
McNealy went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in, while first baseman Jarrett Flaggert went 3-for-4 with a double and a run batted in.
Iziah Salinas (6-0) earned the win, allowing only four hits and two runs in five innings pitched. Salinas struck out six and walked three. Tallen Bagwell finished off the victory by tossing two scoreless innings of relief.
Colby's Jack Schroeder took the loss as he allowed 10 hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Cowley will now set its sights on the Region Tournament and a Dodge City squad that placed third in the Jayhawk West.
"Dodge City head coach Brett Doe does a really good job with his team, so it should be a good challenge," Burroughs said. "There is a lot of parity in this tournament. If this doesn't get our guys excited to play, I don't know what will."
The winner of the tournament advances to play at the NJCAA JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, CO.
Score by inning: R H E
Colby 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 – 2 5 0
Cowley 0 1 0 1 8 3 x – 13 16 1