Tiger baseball team sweeps four-game series against Indian Hills

Getting strong outings from each of its four starting pitchers, the No. 18-ranked Cowley College baseball team swept a four-game series against visiting Indian Hills Community College on Friday and Saturday in Arkansas City, KS.

With the wins, the Tigers improve to 9-2 on the season, while Indian Hills falls to 3-7.

"It was good for us to show improvement and to get the sweep," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

In Friday's opener, Cowley got home runs from Dax McCaskill and Ian Luce, and that was more than enough run support for freshman pitcher Russ Smith (1-0) from Burden, KS, who tossed four scoreless innings before being relieved by Blake DeLong in the 7-1 win.

"Russ continues to grow, and it is good to see his hard work pay off," Burroughs said.

Game two saw Cowley pound out six extra-base hits, and the Tigers got another strong start on the mound, this time from left-handed freshman Kyler Zagar (2-0) from Perry, OK, who struck out six in 3 1/3 innings and allowed one run on three hits.

Luce had another big game, going 3-for-3 with a triple and three runs batted in.

"Ian had good swings throughout the weekend," Burroughs said.

McCaskill added three hits, while sophomore first baseman Dawson Williams added a double and triple in the victory.

Delton Roberts and Barrett Morgan combined to toss four scoreless innings of relief to help finish off the 7-1 win of game two.

In Saturday's first game, Cade Baldridge hit a two-run homer, and Kade Sheldon had two of Cowley's four hits while driving in a pair of runs as the Tigers won 5-1. Tallen Bagwell (2-0) pitched four scoreless innings to earn the win. The right-hander allowed just two hits while striking out two and walking one.

Mark Hoffman followed Bagwell on the mound and allowed one unearned run in two innings before Luke Schimmels tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning.

In Saturday's finale, Cowley scored six runs in the bottom of the first inning, with the big blows being a two-run single by Kade Sheldon and a two-run triple by third baseman Logan Groh.

Tiger starting pitcher Keegan Robertson (1-0) did not allow a run in his three innings pitched and left with Cowley leading 8-0. Indian Hills scored a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but it was not enough as the Tigers held on for the 8-4 win.

McCaskill went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored, and Quinn Groebl and Sheldon had two hits apiece. McCaskill went 7-for-14 with four runs scored and four runs batted in. He is batting .415 with 12 runs batted in.

Cowley's pitching allowed only 19 hits in the four-game series.

The Tigers will open play in the Jayhawk Conference on Thursday when they begin a four-game series against Labette (3-6). Thursday's doubleheader will start at 1 p.m. The teams will wrap up the four-game set by playing a doubleheader in Arkansas City on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"It seems conference play came around awfully quick, but we are excited about getting it going at Labette on Thursday," Burroughs said.

Score by inning from Friday:

Game one                           R H E

Indian Hills 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 – 1 6 3

Cowley        2 2 0 0 1 2 x – 7 8 0

Game two                           R H E

Indian Hills 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 1 5 2

Cowley        1 2 0 4 0 0 x – 7 11 1

Score by inning from Saturday:

Game three                         R H E

Indian Hills 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 – 1 4 3

Cowley        1 0 2 0 2 0 x – 5 4 2

Game four                           R H E

Indian Hills 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 – 4 4 2

Cowley        6 2 0 0 0 0 x – 8 9 0