May 17, 2004

Tiger pitchers shine in win of sub-regional

Getting 17 straight scoreless innings from its starting pitchers, the No. 1-seeded Cowley County Community College baseball team won its sub-regional against No. 8-seed Dodge City by scores of 4-0 and 5-1 Saturday at City Ball Park.

With Josh Wahpepah (11-1) extending his scoreless streak to 30 innings by tossing a two-hit shutout in the opener, and Dustin Richardson (8-3) throwing eight scoreless innings before surrendering a run in the ninth inning of game two, the Tigers advanced to play at the NJCAA Region VI Tournament at Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium Thursday through Sunday.

“We were very pleased,” Cowley assistant coach Darren Burroughs said. “We say the three keys are pitching, hitting, and defense, and we did all three pretty good.”

Although Cowley scored just nine runs in the two games, the Tigers out-hit Dodge City 22-9.

“We hit ball after ball right at them,” Burroughs said. “Pretty soon, those have got to start falling.”

In the first game, Dodge City starting pitcher Jack Shaw matched Wahpepah through the game’s first six innings of play. However, Cowley’s offense finally came to life in the seventh as it scored four runs on five hits in the inning. Deik Scram’s RBI triple highlighted the scoring. Wahpepah struck out eight and walked four in picking up his 11th win of the season.

Brian Freeman, Dwayne White and Daryl Graham each went 2-4 in the victory as the Tigers extended their winning streak to four games.   

In game two, the Tigers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead behind a two run single by Clay Blevins in the first inning, and a RBI double by Hunter Harrigan in the second. Cowley added another run in the fifth on a RBI single by White, and got another RBI single by Scram in the sixth to lead 5-0. Richardson made the lead stand up as he went 8 1/3 innings to earn the victory. Matt VanDeelen recorded the final two outs.

Every player in the Tigers’ lineup had at least one hit. Hunter Harrigan led Cowley’s 14-hit attack by going 3-4 with a run batted in, while Deik Scram, Clay Blevins and Chad Ogden each had two hits.

There were some upsets in the Jayhawk Conference sub-regionals as a pair of No. 2 seeds were knocked off over the weekend. Neosho County, the second seed in the East, lost a pair of games to Colby, the seventh seed in the West.

Johnson County, the seventh seed in the East, also stunned West second-seed Hutchinson 12-11 and 13-2 to advance to the Region VI Tournament in Wichita.

Cowley (39-17) will play Garden City (34-20), the fourth seed in the West, Thursday at 8 p.m. The Broncbusters knocked off Independence, the fifth seed in the East, by winning two of three games played over the weekend.

Cowley must win five games to reach the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo. However, Burroughs is just focusing on Thursday’s contest with Garden City.

“We have got to win the first one before we can win the second one,” Burroughs said. “But we’re excited. With Wahpepah on the mound, we feel he will keep us in the game and give us a chance to win.”

Cowley’s games at the Region VI Tournament can be heard on KSOK 95.9 FM.