Cowley run-rules Harford Community College 12-4 to stay alive at JUCO World Series

Riding out a two and a half hour rain delay, the seventh-seeded Cowley College baseball team found their bats in a 12-4 run-rule win over 10^th-seeded Harford Community College (MD) Sunday at Stocker Stadium's Sam Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, CO.

Cowley (51-10) advances to play Monday at 2 p.m. MST against the winner of the McLennan College vs. Snead State contest.

"That's what it is all about when you get out here, you just take what you can get and try to win the next game," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

After registering only three hits in Saturday's loss to Central Florida, the Tigers erupted for 15 hits on Sunday. Sophomore shortstop David Herring led the offensive onslaught by going 3-for-4 with two triples, a double and three runs batted in.

"We really calmed down at the plate and got back to the approach that we usually have," Herring said. "I saw the ball really well today."

The rain and wind continued for the first inning as Cowley right-hander Carson Pierce had a hard time commanding the zone. After allowing a single and back-to-back walks, Pierce struck out Trey Cruz before surrendering a two-run single to Blake Mayberry. A ground out by Andrew Sicinski scored Jeremiah Guzman with the Fighting Owls' third run of the inning.

The Tigers would answer back in the bottom half of the inning as they surpassed the amount of hits they had in their loss on Saturday by scoring four runs on four hits. Conner Gore singled home Jansen Reeder with the Tigers' first run and Herring followed with a two-run triple to tie the game at 3-3. Herring tried to score from third on a wild pitch but was thrown out at home as the score remained tied.

However, Logan Vaughan walked, advanced to third on a double by Ty Hammack, and scored the go-ahead run on another wild pitch by Connor Blantz, who was relieved by Bobby Spencer with two outs and runners at first and third. Spencer promptly hit Haden O'Toole with a pitch to load the bases, but then got Bryce Madron to ground out to end a 50-minute first inning.

The lead would be short-lived as Nick Gaitan led off the top of the second inning by belting a solo home run to center field to tie the game at 4-4.

Pierce would settle down on the mound and struck out the side in the top of the third inning.

Back-to-back one-out errors by the Fighting Owls' shortstop Trey Cruz led to freshman Trayson Miller singling home Vaughan to put Cowley in front 5-4. Miller entered the game with only 36 at bats on the season.

The Tigers added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth as Trey DeGarmo singled and scored on Herring's second triple of the game. Vaughan would single home Herring to make the score 7-4 in favor of Cowley.

Pierce overpowered the Fighting Owls' hitters striking out 11 before being relieved by Miguel Fulgencio (6-0) with two outs and a runner at third in the top of the fifth inning. Fulgencio got Blake Mayberry to ground out to keep the score 7-4.

Pierce was one out shy of qualifying for the win, but did his job by giving the Tigers nearly five innings on the mound.

"He tried to do too much early on like a lot of young guys do, but he has been really good for us of late," Burroughs said.

Fulgencio would toss the final 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

"It was really big for us to only have to use those two guys (Carson and Miguel)," Burroughs said.

Herring hit his third extra base hit of the game, this time a double, and scored on a single by Vaughan to increase the Tigers' lead to 8-4 in the bottom of the sixth. Harford then pulled Spencer and brought in Joe Clancy to face Ty Hammack, who has been on fire in the tournament. Hammack rudely greeted Clancy by smashing a two-run homer off the centerfield flag pole to make the score 10-4.

Joe Quelch's one-out single in the top of the seventh accounted for Harford's first hit since the second inning as Pierce and Fulgencio mowed down the Fighting Owl batters.

The Tigers would add a run in the bottom of the seventh before Conner Gore completed the run-rule win on his bases loaded single over a drawn in infield.

Madron finished 3-for-5 at the plate, while Gore, Vaughan, and Hammack added two hits apiece.

"When we have the energy we need it allows us to have these kind of comebacks," Hammack said.

Harford finishes the season with a record of 48-9.

Score by inning:            R H E

Harford 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 4 5 2

Cowley  4 0 1 2 0 3 2 – 12 15 1