Tigers split a pair of close games at Kansas City
In a showdown between two of the top teams in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, the No. 10-ranked Cowley College baseball team split a pair of games at Kansas City Kansas Community College on Thursday. The Tigers won the opener 3-1 before losing the second game 7-6 in 10 innings.
Cowley is now 32-8 overall and 19-3 in the conference. The Tigers remain two games in front of Kansas City (34-11 overall, 20-6 Jayhawk East) and Johnson County (16-4) in the conference standings.
In game one, Cowley got a stellar pitching performance to win 3-1. Sophomore Andrew Roach started on the mound and allowed only one run in five innings. Roach (5-2) struck out six and walked one before giving way to closer Ryan Westerhoff, who came in for the six-out save. Westerhoff did not allow a hit while striking out three to pick up his fifth save of the season.
Cowley made the most of its two hits as Cody Milligan hit an RBI double and Tyler Halstead had a run scoring single in the seventh inning to cap the 3-1 win.
Kansas City's Orlando Ortiz-Mayr (6-2) struck out nine but was the tough luck loser.
The teams found their offense in game two with Cowley scoring twice in the top of the first inning and the Blue Devils striking for five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Cowley sophomore Adam White failed to make it out of the first inning as four of the five batters he faced reached base safely.
Freshman Miguel Obeso relieved White on the mound and kept Cowley within striking distance by tossing 2 2/3 scoreless innings. Kaid Karnes and Ethan Swanson would also each pitch 2 2/3 innings and combined to allow only three hits and one unearned run.
George Specht's solo homer in the top of the second inning pulled the Tigers within 5-3.
The Tigers would score three runs in the top of the sixth inning when Parker Dunn hit a two-run double and scored on a single by Logan Steenstra to give Cowley a 6-5 lead.
Kansas City would then scratch across a run in the bottom of the sixth and the score would remain tied until Matt Schrick tripled off Tiger reliever Jared Wilson (2-1) leading off the bottom of the 10thinning and came around to score the winning run on a one-out single by Jared Goodfellow.
Five Tigers had two hits in the game as they out-hit Kansas City 13-10. However, Cowley committed five errors in the defeat.
"There is a fine line between winning and losing and the odds of losing go up when you commit five errors," Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said. "We just could not get the big hit we needed in the second game and we gave them too many opportunities."
Kansas City reliever Gabriel Ramos (4-2), the fourth Blue Devil pitcher used in the game, tossed three scoreless innings to earn the victory.
The teams will wrap up their four-game series by playing a doubleheader in Arkansas City Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
Score by inning:
Game one R H E
Cowley 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 3 2 0
Kansas City 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4 1
Game two R H E
Cowley 2 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 6 13 5
Kansas City 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 7 10 0