Johnson County sweeps doubleheader against Tigers to climb into first place tie in Jayhawk East
Having not lost at home all season, the No. 8-ranked Cowley College baseball team suffered its first home losses as they were swept in a doubleheader against No. 12-ranked Johnson County Thursday in Arkansas City. Cowley lost the opener 7-3 before falling 11-8 in 10 innings in game two. The teams are now tied for first place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division with records of 21-5.
Cowley falls to 34-10, while Johnson County improves to 40-7.
"This game is a strange game, it always swings to the side of the team that plays the best and they just played better than us," Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said.
Jacob Owens hit a two-run homer off Andrew Roach in the top of the second inning of game one to give the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead. However, Cowley answered back with a pair of runs on four hits in the bottom of the second. Two-out singles by Tyler Halstead and Cody Milligan tied the game at 2-2.
The Cavaliers would score two runs thanks to some shaky defense by the Tigers in the top of the fifth inning. Blake Shannon hit a blooper that should have been caught but instead landed between the second baseman and the rightfielder. The next batter, Landen Wood, singled to right field and had the ball take a bad hop off Parker Dunn and roll all the way to the wall and allowed Wood to come all the way around to score and give Johnson County a 4-2 lead.
The Tigers got a run back in the bottom of the fifth when Cade Stephens singled home Blaze Brothers. However, The Cavaliers scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning and held on for the 7-3 win.
Roach (5-3) allowed five hits and four earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. The right-hander struck out six and walked three. Milligan and Halstead had two hits apiece in the defeat.
Zachary Ebert (11-1) went the distance on the mound for Johnson County and allowed only three runs on eight hits, while striking out five and walking two.
In game two, Cowley rallied from deficits of 7-1 and 8-4 to force extra innings with the game tied at 8-8. The Tigers scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth thanks to a Daniel DeSimone two-run homer and a RBI single by Cody Milligan to pull within 8-7. Then, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tyler Halstead singled, stole second and came around to score the tying run on a single by DeSimone.
Unfortunately, Johnson County's Anthony Slaughter hit a three-run double off Ryan Westerhoff (1-1) with two outs in the top of the 10thinning to lift the Cavaliers to the 11-8 win and sweep of the doubleheader.
Freshman Hunter O'Toole started for the Tigers and allowed no runs on two hits in two innings of work. Kaid Karnes followed with two scoreless innings before the Cavaliers got their offense going against Tiger relievers Miguel Obeso and Ethan Swanson.
Dhylan Bierman started on the mound for Johnson County and allowed six hits and three runs in 5 2/3 innings. Paul Rector (1-0) pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10thinning to record the win.
DeSimone went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, while Milligan was 4-for-6 out of the leadoff spot.
The teams will wrap up their four-game series by playing a doubleheader Saturday at Johnson County beginning at 2 p.m.
"We can either regroup, show some fight or disappear," Burroughs said. "We need to find a way to win the doubleheader."
Score by inning:
Game one R H E
Johnson 0 2 0 0 2 0 3 7 7 1
Cowley 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 3 8 2
Game two R H E
Johnson 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 1 0 3 11 14 2
Cowley 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 3 1 0 8 13 3