March 15, 2004

Cowley baseball drops two of three at Northeast Texas

MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas -- In a series dominated by pitching, the Cowley County Community College baseball team ended up losing two of its three games played at Northeast Texas over the weekend.

On Friday, Cowley starting pitcher Josh Wahpepah (2-1) surrendered a grand slam in a five-run first inning, and the Tigers never recovered in the 6-1 loss. The Tigers had just two hits and committed four errors.

In the first game played on Saturday, Cowley's Dustin Richardson (1-2) and Landon West combined on a two-hitter, but the Tigers were unable to generate any offense and lost 1-0.

Cowley bounced back to win the second game 4-2 as it scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the third. Trey Randa (1-0) allowed two runs in three innings to pick up the win. Jordan Garner, Travis Kliewer and Blake Dickson combined to shut out Northeast Texas over the final three innings of the rain-shortened six-inning victory.

"It was three really good ballgames with two pretty good teams playing," Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said. "The pitching dominated the whole weekend. We just didn't hit or play defense Friday night."

Cowley managed just 15 hits in the three games. Clay Blevins had three of Cowley's five runs batted in.

"Our pitching is carrying us right now and hopefully will continue to do so until our offense wakes up out of its deep winter sleep," Burroughs said. "All three pitchers we saw were really good, which will make us better in the long run."

Cowley is now 8-6 on the season and will prepare to open its conference season against Neosho County Tuesday at home. The doubleheader was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., but has been moved back to 2 p.m.

"Now it starts to mean something, so I'm excited," Burroughs said.