Tigers blast six home runs in 11-5 win at Butler
Moving up to No. 10 in the national rankings, the Cowley College baseball team hit a season-high six home runs in an 11-5 win at Butler Community College Tuesday in El Dorado, KS.
Cowley has now won 19 of its last 20 games to improve to 31-7 on the season. Butler dropped both regular season contests with the Tigers and are now 26-15.
Tiger freshmen Cade Stephens and Tyler Halstead each homered twice, while sophomores Cody Milligan and Parker Dunn joined in the fun by hitting solo homers in the win.
After hitting only 16 home runs in the team's first 29 games, Cowley has hit 12 homers in the past nine games.
"The guys are learning to become better hitters daily and are doing things fundamentally," Cowley assistant coach Darren Burroughs said. "Power is usually the last thing to come for the young guys."
Stephens hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning for the Tigers and Halstead belted a solo homer in the second inning to increase Cowley's lead to 4-0. The homers helped chase Butler starting pitcher Easton Conard (1-1) after only two innings of work.
Butler's Colby Standard hit a solo homerun off Tiger starter Cole Larsen leading off the bottom of the second inning to put the Grizzlies on the board, but that would be all the runs they would get off Larsen, who allowed two hits and one run in three innings to improve his record to 6-1 on the season. Seven of the nine outs recorded by the right-hander came via strikeout.
"Cole made some mechanical adjustments since his last start and his velocity was probably as good as it's been or better," Burroughs said.
Halstead hit his second homer of the game in the fourth inning to make the score 5-1 and Parker Dunn added a solo homer in the top of the fifth inning.
Butler's Austin Portner homered in a two-run fourth for the Grizzlies and Standard's second home run of the game pulled Butler within 6-5 after five innings of play.
Leading 7-5 entering the ninth inning, Cody Milligan began the inning with a solo homer and Stephens capped the inning with a three-run blast for his second home run of the game as he finished with five RBIs.
Milligan had two more hits out of the leadoff spot and continues to lead the Tigers with a .429 batting average.
Seven Tiger relievers followed Larsen on the mound, the last four of which each tossed a scoreless inning of relief. Austin Neal, Ethan Swanson, Jared Wilson, and Ryan Westerhoff combined to allow only two hits over the final four innings of play.
Cowley will now prepare to open an important four-game series against Kansas City (33-10). The Tigers currently hold a two-game lead over the Blue Devils in the Jayhawk East. The teams will open the four-game set by playing a doubleheader at Kansas City Thursday at 2 p.m. before wrapping up with a doubleheader in Arkansas City Saturday at 1 p.m.
"Kansas City has got a good club, so we will need to pitch it well to give us the best chance to win," Burroughs said. "We want to continue to improve and play with confidence."
Score by inning: R H E
Cowley 3 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 4 11 13 1
Butler 0 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 5 8 1