April 19, 2004

Tiger baseball team runs win streak to six games with sweep of Kansas City

Coming from behind to win both games of a doubleheader against Kansas City Saturday at City Ball Park, the Cowley County Community College baseball team ran its winning streak to a season-best six games.

In the first game, Cowley scored five runs in the first inning and led 5-0 after three innings of play. However, Tiger starting pitcher Dustin Richardson ran into trouble in the top of the fourth as he was tagged for four hits and seven runs. Cowley’s defense did not help him much as it committed two errors in the inning that led to all of the runs being unearned.

Trailing 7-5, Deik Scram started a five-run rally in the bottom of the fourth by blasting his team-leading sixth home run of the season. Chad Ogden and Daryl Graham each drove in a run in the inning, and catcher Hunter Harrigan capped the five-run fourth with a two-run single to put Cowley on top 10-7.

The Tigers scored three more runs in the top of the fifth and went on to a 13-7 win of game one.

Matt VanDeelen (3-2) relieved Richardson with two outs in the fourth and went on to allow one hit and no runs in 3 1/3 innings. VanDeelen struck out five and walked none in picking up his third win of the season.

“VanDeelen came in and was outstanding,” Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said.

Cowley pounded out 13 hits in the win. Freshman first baseman Brian Freeman connected on his fourth home run of the season, while Ogden went 2-3 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.

In game two, Cowley’s Adam Henry (4-2) allowed just four hits in six innings, but Kansas City made the most out of its four hits, scoring three runs in the second inning and two more in the fourth to lead 5-2.

Cowley answered with a run-scoring single from Brandon Harrigan and a two-run single from Scram to tie the game at 5-5 after four innings.

With the score still deadlocked at 5-5, Cowley started a two-out rally in the bottom of the sixth. After Brandon Harrigan and Ogden were retired to start the sixth, sophomore left fielder Dwayne White came through with a two-out double. Scram and Freeman followed with two-out walks, and sophomore catcher Clay Blevins delivered a two-run double to give the Tigers a 7-5 lead.

“It was good to see our older kids (Dwayne and Clay) step up and do that,” Burroughs said.

Ronnie Phillips then came in to pitch a 1-2-3 seventh to preserve the win and notch his second save of the season.

Burroughs was pleased with the resolve his team demonstrated in the come-from-behind wins.

“The good thing was we showed we have a lot of fight in us,” Burroughs said. “Our kids didn’t panic when they got down. It was a good doubleheader for us. Hopefully, we’re starting to play our best baseball of the season. We haven’t played our best baseball yet, so we’re still going to get better.”

Blevins led Cowley’s 11-hit attack in game two by going 3-4 with two doubles and two runs batted in. Brandon Harrigan added two hits and three runs batted in.

The victories improve the Tigers’ record to 28-12 overall and 20-6 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Cowley leads second-place Neosho by four games in the conference standings.

Cowley will be back in action Tuesday when it plays a doubleheader at Allen County Community College at 2 p.m.