Tiger baseball team defeats Butler 14-6 for fourth straight win

Getting hits from 10 different players, the No. 6-ranked Cowley College baseball team defeated Jayhawk West foe Butler Community College 14-6 Friday in Arkansas City.

Winners of four straight games, Cowley is now 9-4 on the season. Butler (7-4) has now lost four games in a row after winning its first seven.

Cowley sophomore Carson Sader led off the bottom of the first inning with a double and came around to score the game's first run on a RBI double by Grady Davenport. The Tigers added to their lead when Corbin Lill led off the bottom of the second with a walk and later scored on a one-out sacrifice fly by Sader.

Cole Larsen started on the mound for Cowley and allowed only one hit in two innings to go along with a pair of strikeouts, while Kaid Karnes followed Larsen on the mound and tossed two scoreless innings.

Cowley would score two runs on only one hit in the fourth inning to increase its lead to 4-0.

After Tiger freshman Hunter O'Toole pitched a scoreless fifth inning, the Grizzlies scored five runs off four Cowley relievers in the top of the sixth inning. Freshman Miguel Obeso (2-0) came on to record the final two outs in the top of the sixth.

Suddenly trailing 5-4, Lil again got things started for the Tigers. The freshman leftfielder singled leading off the bottom of the sixth and later in the inning hit a three-run double as Cowley scored seven runs in the inning to lead 11-5.

Sophomore first baseman Daniel DeSimone would then hit a two-run single in a three-run seventh that helped put the game away.

"Our response after falling behind was good," Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said. "That kind of woke us up a bit."

Davenport finished the game 1-for-2 with three sacrifice flies and four RBIs, while Lil went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three runs batted in. "Those two were really good and kind of carried us," Burroughs said.

David Henderson (1-1), the third Butler pitcher, took the loss as he was tagged for six runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Cowley will now prepare to play its conference-opening four-game series against Coffeyville (6-6) beginning with a doubleheader at Coffeyville Thursday at 1 p.m. The teams will wrap up the series by playing a doubleheader in Arkansas City Saturday at 1 p.m.

"It will be a good test. Coffeyville has one of the better arms in the conference that they will throw at us," Burroughs said. "It should be fun."

Score by inning: R H E

Butler 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 0 6 8 2

Cowley 1 1 0 2 0 7 3 0 x 14 12 1