Lady Tiger softball team bounces back to earn split at Friends JV

The No. 19-ranked Cowley College softball team bounced back from a disappointing 5-4 road loss to the Friends University JV in Monday's first game of a doubleheader to defeat the Lady Falcons 11-3 in game two.

Cowley led game one 3-0 and 4-3 before Friends tied the game at 4-4 by scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Brooke Mason started on the mound for Cowley and allowed eight hits and four runs in five innings pitched. Mason struck out six and walked one as she left with the game tied at 4-4.

Freshman Sydni Williams (3-3) relieved Mason on the mound and tossed a scoreless sixth and seventh inning to force extra innings.

With the international tie-breaker placing a runner at second base to start extra innings, Friends hit a sacrifice fly to advance the runner to third and then hit another sacrifice fly to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.

Kayla McClellan went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs batted in for the Tigers. However, Cowley managed only seven hits in the loss.

"Offensively, we did not make adjustments which hurt us in the end," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said.

Cowley got a big effort from sophomore pitcher Ashlynn Mercer in the nightcap as she struck out a career-high 15 batters in the 11-3 win. The victory improves Mercer's record to 8-2 on the season.

"Ashlynn threw a really good game," Hoyt said.

With the score tied 2-2 after four innings of play, Cowley regained the lead with a run in the fifth inning and then scored three more runs in the sixth inning and five in the seventh to pull away for the 11-3 win.

Paige Hughes led Cowley's 15-hit attack by going 4-for-5 with a triple and two runs batted in. While, Kayla McClellan and Sydni Williams each went 3-for-5 with three runs batted in. McClellan now has 35 runs batted in, while Hughes raised her average to .531.

Cowley (21-7) will return home to face No. 7-ranked Highland Community College in an important conference doubleheader Thursday beginning at 2 p.m. The Lady Scotties are 22-4 overall and 7-1 in the Jayhawk East.

Score by inning:

Game one                      R H E

Cowley 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 4 7 3

Friends 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 1 – 5 9 1

Game two                    R H E

Cowley 0 1 1 0 1 3 5 – 11 15 0

Friends 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 – 3 4 0