Lady Tiger softball team wins three of four games on the weekend

Winners of 10 games in a row entering a pair of weekend doubleheaders, the Cowley College softball team ran its winning streak to 13 games in a row before Hesston College got a walk-off home run by Kimberlin Hopson to split a doubleheader Sunday in Hesston.

Cowley opened the weekend by hosting Kansas City in a doubleheader on Saturday. The Lady Tigers scored 11 runs in the first three innings of game one and held on for the 12-10 win.

Sydni Williams and Kayla McClellan drove in three runs a piece, while Tye North had four of Cowley's 16 hits in the opener. Tiger sophomore Brooke Mason allowed 10 hits and five earned runs in six innings pitched as she improved her record to 8-2 on the season.

With game two tied 3-3 following three runs by Kansas City in the top of the sixth inning, Cowley scratched a run across in the bottom of the sixth inning to win 4-3.

"Those were two big wins for us because KCK challenged us offensively," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said. "To capture the wins of these two games was huge."

Alivia Lange led Cowley at the plate by going 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored.

Ashlynn Mercer went the first six innings on the mound and allowed only four hits and two earned runs before giving way to Sydni Williams, who tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning to earn the win.

On Sunday, Cowley took an early 2-0 lead in the opening game against Hesston before the Larks tied the game on back-to-back home runs by Hopson and Mariah Gilmartin. However, Cowley broke the 2-2 tie by scoring four runs in the top of the sixth inning and the Lady Tigers went on to the 6-2 win.

Sophomore shortstop Dezmen Duncan hit her third home run of the season and drove in three runs in the victory. Mason started on the mound and allowed four hits and two runs in four innings, while striking out seven and walking two.

Mason was relieved by Williams, who tossed three scoreless innings of relief to earn her second win of the weekend.

Unfortunately, Williams' (3-2) luck would run out in the final game of the weekend as she allowed the walk-off homer to Hopson and three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Hesston starting pitcher Terri Stanton (5-2) went the distance on the mound and limited Cowley to seven hits and three earned runs.

"We just did not play great softball and had no execution in that second game," Hoyt said.

Micah North hit her second homer of the season in the loss, while McClellan went 3-for-4 with three runs batted in. McClellan now leads the team with 29 runs batted in.

Cowley will host a doubleheader against lowly Fort Scott Community College Tuesday at 2 and 4 p.m. The Lady Greyhounds are 0-18 on the season.

"We have to leave that loss against Hesston behind us," Hoyt said. "We want to remember the feeling, but make adjustments sooner in the games as we will see more challenging games to come in conference play."

Score by inning:

Game one                    R H E

KCK    0 0 4 2 2 0 2 – 10 13 2

Cowley 0 6 5 0 0 1 x – 12 16 3

Game two                   R H E

KCK    0 0 0 0 0 3 0 – 3 4 2

Cowley 0 0 2 1 0 1 x – 4 9 0

Game one                     R H E

Cowley  0 1 1 0 0 4 0 – 6 10 1

Hesston 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 – 2 7 0

Game two                     R H E

Cowley  1 0 0 0 4 0 0 – 5 7 0

Hesston 0 0 1 3 0 0 3 – 7 10 1