Tiger baseball team bounces back to split home-opening doubleheader

Coming off four straight road wins to open the season, the No. 10-ranked Cowley College baseball team returned home to play a doubleheader against Jayhawk West foe Cloud County Thursday in Arkansas City. After a surprising 12-3 loss in game one, the Tigers bounced back to win the nightcap by a score of 8-4.

Tiger freshman Christian Johnson (0-1) made his second straight start on the mound and was coming off a solid debut at Hutchinson on Saturday. However, Johnson recorded only two outs before being lifted with Cowley trailing 4-0 and the bases loaded in the top of the first inning.

Tiger reliever Logan Kimbro would allow all three inherited runners to score as Johnson was tagged for seven runs in 2/3 innings pitched. In all, Cowley allowed eight runs on seven hits and four walks in the opening frame.

"We got in a big hole and were not able to climb out of it," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "Guys tried to overcompensate for the large deficit and did not stick with their approaches at the plate."

Staked to the big lead, Cloud starting pitcher Kolby Dougan allowed only our hits and one run in five innings pitched as he improved his record to 3-0 on the season.

Cowley's Janson Reeder and Felix Chenier-Rondeau had two hits apiece in the defeat, while Joel Benes hit his second home run of the season.

In game two, Cowley rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game at 2-2. With the game tied 4-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Blake Robertson hit a one-out double and scored the go-ahead run on a RBI single by Andrew Williams.

Former Winfield High School standout Conner Woods came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning with the T-birds trailing 5-4. Woods allowed a run scoring single by Reeder to increase the Tigers' lead to 6-4. Then, with runners at second and third and one out, Robertson hit a ground ball to Cloud shortstop Adler Pierson, who in an attempt to get the runner out at home, threw the ball over the catchers head allowing centerfielder Bryce Madron to score the Tigers seventh run. After a run-scoring sacrifice fly by Williams made the score 8-4, Woods struck out Chenier-Rondeau to end the inning.

Woods allowed two hits and three runs, two of which were earned in his inning of work. Evan Wilde started on the mound for the T-Birds and allowed four runs in four innings before giving way to Aaron Hayes, who was saddled with the loss after allowing the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Madron led the Tigers at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a double and a run batted in.

Freshman Grant Adler from Derby, KS, started on the mound in game two for the Tigers and allowed three hits and two runs in three innings pitched. Lindon Curley (1-0), the fourth Tiger pitcher used in the nightcap, tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning to earn the win.

Isaac Stebens earned his first save of the season by striking out four and allowing only one hit over the final two innings of play.

"Those guys came in the game in a tough spot and solidified the game for us," Burroughs said. "Even Cameron Burris, who came in before Curley and Stebens did an outstanding job."

The teams will play two more games Saturday in Concordia, KS with the first game of the doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Cowley is now 5-1 on the season, while Cloud is 6-5.

"We hope to continue to improve," Burroughs said. "It is still early March, so it is all about learning right now. We are still trying to make up for lost time on the field and hope to be playing our best baseball come April and May."

Score by inning:

Game one                     R H E

Cloud  8 0 0 0 0 3 1 – 12 13 0

Cowley 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 – 3 8 3

Game two                         R H E

Cloud  2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 – 4 9 3

Cowley 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 3 x – 8 7 1