Tigers’ bats go silent in loss of doubleheader at Fort Scott
The tough start to the season for the Cowley College baseball team continued on Saturday, with the Tigers managing only six hits in a pair of losses at Fort Scott. The Greyhounds shut out Cowley 2-0 in the first game before defeating the Tigers 12-5 in the finale as Fort Scott won three of four games in the series.
Cowley is now 9-12 overall and 1-3 in the Jayhawk Conference. Fort Scott improves to 17-8 overall and 3-5 in conference play.
In Saturday's opener, Fort Scott's Brayden Carter outdueled Cowley's Grady Hoke in the Greyhounds 2-0 victory. Carter (4-0) tossed a complete-game two-hit shutout, while striking out nine and walking one. Hoke (1-2) allowed seven hits and two runs as he struck out eight and walked two in five innings of work.
Cowley's two hits came from Drake Fittro and Creed Muirhead.
"We have some guys that are scuffling at the plate," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "Grady was good and gave us a chance."
In game two, Cowley rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game with three runs in the top of the fourth inning. However, Tiger starting pitcher Chance Acord (1-3) and Keegan Robertson combined to allow the Greyhounds to score eight runs in the fifth inning and went on to lose, 12-5.
"We had one bad inning in game two, and that was the difference," Burroughs said. "It was a frustrating day as a coach."
Fort Scott out-hit Cowley 10-4. Fittro went 1-for-3 with two runs batted in out of the leadoff spot, and freshman Josiah Sems hit his first home run of the season.
Greyhound leftfielder Ethan Hampton went 2-for-4 with a home run and four runs batted in, while first baseman Cale Ortner also homered and drove in four.
Cowley will return home to face No. 16-ranked Hutchinson in a nine-inning game on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The Blue Dragons are 23-3 on the season.
"Hutchinson is playing really well," Burroughs said. "We hope to get some things ironed out this week."
Score by inning:
Game one R H E
Cowley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 2 1
Ft. Scott 0 0 0 1 1 0 x – 2 9 1
Game two R H E
Cowley 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 1 0 – 5 4 2
Ft. Scott 3 0 0 0 8 0 0 1 x – 12 10 3