Campbell’s walk-off homer keeps Tigers’ season alive

Survive and advance. With the season on the line for both teams on Friday, the fourth-seeded Cowley College baseball team got a walk-off home run from freshman third baseman Keaton Campbell in a 9-8 10-inning victory over 13^th-seed Pratt Community College to win the sub-regional two games to one in the series played in Arkansas City.

With the victory, Cowley (35-20) advances to play at the Region VI Championship May 17-21 at Wichita State University. Pratt finishes the season with a record of 25-33.

"This was pretty special for the guys to battle the way they did," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "Pratt played hard, and I am proud of our guys to come back and win it."

Pratt had rallied from deficits of 3-1, 5-2, and 7-4 before rallying to lead 8-7 after Jaden Flores' solo home run off Tiger reliever Cole Abbott in the top of the eighth inning.

However, Campbell doubled leading off the bottom of the eighth and scored the tying run on a one-out double by sophomore Logan Vaughan.

Chance Condit (2-2) came on to pitch a scoreless ninth and 10^th inning and set the stage for Campbell's heroics which came with one out in the bottom of the 10^th.

"Chance has been on this kind of stage before, so we know he is always going to compete like he did today," Burroughs said.

Campbell finished 2-for-5 with his fourth home run of the season.

"This is an unbelievable feeling," Campbell said. "This is something you always dream about."

Freshman Danny Satterlee gave the Tigers a solid effort on the mound, striking out eight and walking none while allowing five hits and three earned runs in five innings pitched.

"He made a couple of mistakes but was really good overall," Burroughs said.

Cowley got big days at the plate from Cooper Schwindt and Trayson Miller as they combined for five hits and five runs batted in. Miller swatted his ninth home run of the season in the victory.

Cowley got to Pratt starting pitcher Xander Roberts for five runs in four innings.

The Tigers will be one of eight teams battling for the Region title and a chance to play at the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, CO. Cowley will face fifth-seeded Cloud County at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

"We expect to get to Wichita and do well there," Burroughs said. "I hope we can relax and play good baseball there."

Score by inning:                    R H E

Pratt     1 0 1 0 2 0 2 2 0 0 – 8 10 0

Cowley 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 – 9 10 2