April 16, 2004

Tiger baseball team sweeps second straight opponent

The Cowley County Community College baseball team won a pair of dramatically different games Thursday at City Ball Park, winning the first game over Coffeyville in its final at-bat, and then run-ruling the Red Ravens 13-3 in game two.

In the first game, Cowley’s Josh Wahpepah and Coffeyville’s Austin Jones were stellar on the mound. Wahpepah allowed only three hits in the game, but a two-run homer he surrendered to Mike Malone in the top of the fourth inning looked like it might be the difference as Jones shut out Cowley over the game’s first five innings of play.

The game turned when Cowley pinch-hitter Steven Wright drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the sixth. Freshman Brian Freeman, who had lined out hard each of his previous two at-bats, followed with a crushing drive over the left centerfield wall to tie the score at 2-2.

“Whenever Steve walked, I started getting chills because I wanted to hit and get up there and try to tie the game for us,” Freeman said. “I was waiting for his fastball, and he gave it to me.”

After Wahpepah retired the side in the top of the seventh, Cowley’s Chad Ogden led off the bottom of the seventh with a single up the middle. Kellin Linville then laid down a well-executed sacrifice bunt to move Ogden to second with one out.

Dwayne White, who had walked each of his previous two plate appearances, finally got a pitch to hit and lined a single to right field to score Ogden from second with the game-winning run.

“I was just looking for a strike,” White said. “He gave me a soft fastball in, and I just waited for it.”

White got off to a tough start to the season, but has really been swinging the bat well of late as his average has climbed from the .230s to over .280.

“I’ve been working hard in practice,” White said. “Coach Dave (Burroughs) has been helping me everyday to try and find something that works and get me back to the way I was swinging it.”

Wahpepah struck out six and walked two in improving to 5-1 on the season.

“Wahpepah was exceptional in that game,” Burroughs said. “He kept us in the game, and Freeman came up with an opportunity to do something big, and he did. It was just as big in the seventh when our guys came through.”

In the nightcap, Cowley got its bats going early and often as it struck for seven runs in the first inning and pounded out 13 hits in a 13-3 five-inning run-rule win.

Clay Blevins belted his third home run of the season in the first inning, and Travis Kliewer (3-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to get the win.

Blevins drove in three runs, while White and Deik Scram added two hits and two runs batted in apiece. Blevins leads Cowley with 28 runs batted in, and White has driven in 27.

Cowley has won four consecutive games, and is now 26-12 overall and 18-6 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The losses drop Coffeyville’s record to 10-27 overall and 6-16 in the Jayhawk East.

Cowley will host Kansas City in a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m. The Tigers have scored 36 runs during their four-game winning streak.

“We just need to keep swinging it, because once we start hitting, no one’s going to be able to beat us,” White said.