March 3, 2004

Nine-run eighth inning dooms Tigers

Trailing 10th-ranked Connors State just 5-3 after seven innings of play, the ninth-ranked Cowley County Community College baseball team watched the Cowboys score nine runs in the eighth inning and pull away for a 14-4 win Tuesday at City Ball Park.

Things started well for Cowley as it jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning of play. Connors State starting pitcher, Adam Hawes, who has signed to play at Auburn University next season, got off to a shaky start as he walked the first three batters he faced.

Tiger third baseman Brandon Harrigan made Hawes pay for his control problems by lining a two-run single that scored Kellen Linville and Daryl Graham with the first two runs of the game. Deik Scram scored the third run of the inning on a throwing error by Cowboys' shortstop Chance Henson.

Connors answered with a pair of runs in the top of the second as Tiger starting pitcher Josh Wahpepah, who has signed to play at the University of Texas next season, had control problems of his own. Wahpepah walked three batters and hit one in the Cowboys' two-run second inning. The 6-foot-5 right-hander went the first four innings on the mound for Cowley, allowing three hits, four walks, and two runs. He struck out five and left with a 3-2 lead.

The score stayed 3-2 until the top of the sixth, when Connors used four hits off Tiger reliever Trace Larman (0-1) to plate three runs, and take a 5-3 lead.

Heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Cowley did not have a hit off Hawes since Harrigan's two-run single in the bottom of the first inning. After Clay Blevins drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh, Linville hit a double to the left-centerfield gap, but Blevins was thrown out trying to score on the play.

Then the floodgates opened in the eighth as Connors scored nine runs in a variety of ways off Cowley reliever Adam Henry. Two runs scored on Tiger errors, one scored on a balk by Henry, and another run scored when Henry hit Dustin Dailey with the bases loaded.

Colby Overstreet's single off Cowboys' reliever Travis Gilligan in the bottom of the eighth scored Dwyane White with the final run of the game as Connors won 14-4 in eight innings.

Connors outhit Cowley 13-4 as every player in its lineup had a hit except for first baseman Buck Shaw. Just eight days earlier the Cowboys were beaten by the Tigers 13-2 at their place.

Linville, White, Harrigan and Overstreet combined for Cowley's only hits in the game. The Tigers are now 4-4 on the season. Cowley will be back in action today when it plays host to Northern Oklahoma College (Tonkawa) in a nine-inning game at 3 p.m.