Tigers come alive late in 10-3 win over Kansas City

The No. 5-ranked Cowley College baseball team scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and hit three home runs in the eighth inning as they rallied to defeat Kansas City Kansas Community College 10-3 in the NJCAA Plains District (Region VI) Championship played Thursday at Dean Evans Stadium in Salina, KS.

"This was a big win. The first one in the tournament is always hard," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "We were pressing a bit to start, but started taking better swings as the game went along."

Cowley (44-8) advances to face Butler Community College (36-14) Friday at 1 p.m. Kansas City (31-19) was set to face Colby in an elimination game later Thursday night.

"Butler has a really good club, so it should be a good matchup," Burroughs said.

After the four-run sixth, Cowley scored a run in the seventh and then hit three, solo homers in the eighth to cap the 10-3 win. Michelle Artzberger and Gus Freeman belted back-to-back home runs off Terrell in the bottom of the eighth inning. The homers were the sixth of the season for both players. Two batters later, Elijah Jackson crushed his fifth home run of the season to cap the scoring.

"I would have liked to have had someone on base with those homers, but we will take them any way we can get them," Burroughs said.

With Cowley having six lefthanded batters in the starting lineup, Kansas City countered with Lefthander Logan Barnard on the mound.

Kansas City's Brendyn Bard got the scoring started with a run scoring single off Tiger starting pitcher Grant Adler in the top of the third inning. However, Cowley answered back in the bottom of the third when Janson Reeder tripled home Felix Chenier-Rondeau with two outs in the inning. Blake Robertson would follow with an RBI double to give Cowley its first lead at 2-1.

Adler went four innings before being relieved by Tiger freshman Miguel Fulgencio after walking the Blue Devils' Caleb Brown leading off the top of the fifth inning. Cole Slibowski walked to put runners at first and second, and a passed ball moved the runners into scoring position. Brown would score the tying run on a one-out sacrifice fly by Palmer Hutchison. Back-to-back wild pitches by Fulgencio allowed Slibowski to come around and score the go-ahead run as Kansas City went back in front by a score of 3-2.

The Tigers would chase Barnard from the game after the lefty walked back-to-back batters with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning. Righthander Parker Weddle came on in relief of Barnard and after walking Michelle Artzberger to load the bases with two outs, Weddle got catcher Gus Freeman to ground out to third to end the threat.

However, Weddle would not last much longer as he was relieved by Chase Terrell after back-to-back walks leading off the bottom of the sixth inning. Chenier-Rondeau greeted Terrell with a single to right-field to load the bases with nobody out. Terrell then walked Trey DeGarmo to score David Herring with the tying run. After a pop out by Bryce Madron, Janson Reeder hit a deep fly ball to left field that was dropped by Caleb Brown for a two-run error, which gave the Tigers a 5-3 lead.

Two batters later, Artzberger singled home DeGarmo to make the score 6-3. Cowley would plate an insurance run in the seventh inning when DeGarmo singled home Elijah Jackson, who doubled earlier in the inning.

Fulgencio (7-1) settled in on the mound and did not allow a hit in 3 1/3 innings of relief. The lefthander retired eight batters in a row before allowing a pair of one-out walks in the top of the eighth.

"Miguel was phenomenal," Burroughs said. "He came in and did a great job and I am really proud of him."

Jerome Tylicki came on in relief of Fulgencio with runners at first and second and one out and got a pair of ground outs to end the inning. Tylicki then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to finish off the win.

Adler allowed three hits, four walks, and three runs. While, Barnard allowed six hits, three walks and two runs in 4 1/3 innings. The lefty benefited from the Tigers hitting into three double plays.

The winner of the Region VI Championship will advance to play May 29-June 4 at the NJCAA Division I JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, CO.                           

Score by inning:                R H E

KCK    0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 –  3 3 1

Cowley 0 0 2 0 0 4 1 3 x – 10 13 1