Tiger baseball improves to 25-3 in Jayhawk East with wins over Kansas City

Pounding out 54 hits and scoring 49 runs, the No. 10-ranked Cowley College baseball team remained in first place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division by winning all four games played against Kansas City this weekend in Arkansas City.

After sweeping Saturday's doubleheader by scores of 8-3 and 4-3, the Tigers' bats came alive in 21-11 and 16-5 wins on Sunday.

Cowley has won 31 of its past 35 games to improve to 34-9 overall and 25-3 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The Tigers have had to keep winning in order to stay in front of Neosho County in the conference. The Panthers have won 11 conference games in a row and are only two games behind Cowley in the Jayhawk East with a record of 23-5.

Sophomore Andrew Polly got the weekend started right for Cowley as he allowed only four hits and one earned run in Cowley's 8-3 win of game one. Polly struck out 10 and walked none in improving his record to 8-0 on the season. Polly has struck out 47 batters and walked only three in 58 innings pitched.

"He is amazing," Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said. "Our guys like playing behind him because he pitches to contact and throws strikes."

Robbie Rea, who had nine hits and 10 runs batted in on the weekend, went 3-for-4 and scored the go-ahead run in the fifth inning of the Tigers' 4-3 win of game two.

Freshman Garrett Bane improved his record to 4-2 by allowing only two hits and one earned run in five innings pitched. Bane struck out four and walked two. Drew Palmer and Jake Lovendahl combined for three innings of scoreless relief before handing the ball over to Robbie Rea, who nailed down his fifth save of the season.
On Sunday, Cowley scored nine runs in the bottom of the second inning of game one and cruised to a 21-11 six-inning win. Sophomore catcher Ruben Marrero led Cowley's 19-hit attack by going 4-for-4 with a triple and four RBI's, while Jaden Chappell and Tito Mendoza each went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in. Mendoza belted his fourth home run of the season in the win.

Cowley freshman Storm Marlar worked the first three innings and allowed eight runs, four earned, before giving way to Craig George (1-0), who earned his first victory of the season by allowing three runs in three innings pitched.

After Kansas City scored three runs in the top of the first inning off Tiger starting pitcher Jacob Edwards in the final game of the series, Cowley answered back with six runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Robbie Rea, whose error in the top of the first inning aided Kansas City, came back to blast a three-run homer in the bottom of the first. The home run for Rea was his sixth of the season, tying him with Aaron Rea for the team lead.

Casey Lassley also played well and went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in, while Tito Mendoza had hits in each of the first three games to extend his hitting streak to 22 games before going 0-for-5 in the final game of the weekend. During his 22-game hit streak, Mendoza went 39-for-84 (.464 average) with 34 runs batted in.

"That was an impressive run," Burroughs said. "He was hitting balls hard all over the field."

The Tigers will return to action Tuesday when they play a nine-inning game at Barton County at 7 p.m. The Cougars (30-16) have won nine of their past 10 games and trail only Seward County in the Jayhawk West.
"It was a good weekend for us but we have got to move on and get ready for Barton on Tuesday and Johnson County this weekend," Burroughs said.

Score by inning:
Game one		R	H	E
Kansas City	0 0 0 2 1 0 0 -	3	4	0
Cowley	0 6 1 1 0 0 x -	8	12	0
Game two		R	H	E
Kansas City	0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 -	3	5	1
Cowley	0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 x -	4	10	2
Game three		R	H	E
Kansas City	0 3 4 3 0 1 -	11	13	2
Cowley	0 9 3 4 0 5 -	21	19	2
Game four		R	H	E
Kansas City	3 0 0 0 2 0 0 -	5	7	2
Cowley	6 4 0 3 0 3 x -	16	13	2

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