Tigers blast Colby 14-4 in opener of sub-regional

The third-seeded Cowley College baseball team reached the 40-win plateau with a 14-4 win over 14^th-seeded Colby Community College in the opening game of the best-of-three sub-regional played Thursday in Arkansas City.

Cowley improves its record to 40-16, while Colby falls to 14-43. The teams will meet again today at 2 p.m. in Arkansas City. The winner of the sub-regional will advance to play at the Plains District (Region VI) Championship May 15-19 at Wichita State University's Eck Stadium.

On Thursday, Cowley chased Colby starting pitcher Zach Gregory from the game by scoring nine runs in the first two innings. The Tigers' Dane Harvey had a three-run homer in the first inning, and Jarrett Flaggert hit a two-run double in the four-run second.

The home run for Harvey ties him with Alex Conover for the team lead in homers with 12.

The Tigers continued to pour it on by scoring four more runs in the third inning and another in the fourth to lead 14-0.

"It was good for us to come out swinging the bats well," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "Dane is seeing the ball really well right now."

Cowley's starting pitcher, Cody Airington, picked up his staff-leading seventh win as the right-hander improved to 7-2 by tossing six scoreless innings, with six strikeouts and no walks. Airington benefited from solid defense behind him as the Tigers turned two double plays to help him work around his six hits allowed.

"It all starts on the mound," Burroughs said. "We wanted to stretch Cody out, and he pitched really good when he got runners on base."

Colby scored four runs off Tiger reliever Cole Abbott in the top of the seventh inning, but that was not enough, as Cowley won 14-4.

Harvey and Flaggert had two hits apiece in the victory.

Score by inning:           R H E

Colby   0 0 0 0 0 0 4 –   4 9 1

Cowley 5 4 4 1 0 0 x – 14 11 0