May 24, 2004

Tiger's magic runs out in season ending loss to Seward County

WICHITA — Fighting its way through the losers bracket, the Cowley County Community College baseball team won four games in a row, including two wins in its last at bat, before having its season come to an end with a 8-5 loss to Seward County in the championship round of the Region VI Tournament played at Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on Sunday.

“We put ourselves in a bad spot by losing our first game, but we showed a lot of heart and desire in winning four straight,” Cowley assistant coach Darren Burroughs said. “Our guys never quit, so we have got to be proud of the effort they gave.”

After losing its first game of the tournament to Garden City on Thursday, the Tigers advanced to play in the weekend by knocking off Barton County 15-10 on Friday.

It looked as if the Jayhawk East top-seeded Tigers were going to make an early exit from the double elimination tournament as they fell behind Johnson County 5-0 in its first game on Saturday. However, Cowley rallied to score a run in the fourth, two more in the fifth, and two in the sixth to tie the game at 5-5.

Johnson County regained the lead with a run in the seventh and one more in the eighth off reliever Landon West, who pitched three innings in relief of Tiger starter Adam Henry, who went the first five innings on the mound. Matt Van Deelen (5-3) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Tigers.

Trailing 7-5, and down to its final three outs, Cowley’s Deik Scram walked to lead off the ninth. Kellen Linville followed with a hard hit line drive that was dropped by the right fielder, putting runners at first and second with nobody out.

Looking to advance the runners into scoring position, Clay Blevins attempted a sacrifice bunt, but he bunted back to Johnson County relief pitcher Robert Chavana, who threw to third for the force out.

With runners at first and second and one out, Colby Overstreet stepped to the plate. Overstreet, who was not in the starting line up, but entered the game at first base in the third inning after Brian Freeman suffered an ankle injury, smashed a two-run double over the center fielders head to tie the game at 7-7.

Dwayne White followed with a ground out to advance Overstreet to third, and Matt Webb won the game for the Tigers by blasting his first home run of the season over the center field fence.

Webb had gone 129 at bats without a home run before getting one of the biggest hits of his young career.

“The coaches have really been working with me and it’s finally paid off,” Webb said. “I felt like this was my chance to do something good, so I was just glad to help out the club.”

Overstreet went 3-4 with three runs batted in in the win, while Hunter Harrigan, Chad Ogden and Blevins each added two hits for the Tigers.

The victory sent Cowley into a rematch with Garden City, who had bounced back from a loss to Pratt on Friday to beat Allen County 8-7 earlier on Saturday.

The Tigers got a strong start on the mound from freshman Trace Larman (3-2) as he allowed just two runs in 6 2/3 innings. Hunter Harrigan hit his second home run of the tournament in a four-run fourth inning as Cowley built a 5-0 lead en route to a 7-2 win over the Broncbusters.

“Trace was outstanding for us, he went out there and threw strikes which was the key,” Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said.

The victory over Garden City advanced Cowley to play fifth-seeded Pratt on Sunday for the chance to move on and play Jayhawk West top-seed Seward County in the championship round.

Cowley knocked Pratt starting pitcher Bill Amidei from the game with nobody out in the top of the fourth, and built a 5-0 lead after four innings of play. However, the Beavers scored a run in the fifth inning, and then capped the five-run comeback with a six-run sixth inning.

Chris Gibson, son of Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, completed the comeback with a three-run homer just inside the right field foul pole off Tiger starting pitcher Dustin Richardson, to put Pratt ahead 6-5. The Beavers would add unearned run off reliever Trey Randa to lead 7-5.

Cowley got a run back in the bottom of the seventh as White led off with a single and came around to score on a double by Overstreet. However, Overstreet was later caught stealing home on a delayed steal to end the inning.

The score would stay 7-6 heading into the bottom of the ninth. Pratt reliever Billy Brazle struck out H. Harrigan to start the inning and then got Overstreet to fly out to left for the second out of the inning.

Down to its final strike, Webb drew a two-out walk on a full count. The walk started a chain reaction as Blevins followed with a walk, and Ogden walked to load the bases. With the bases full, shortstop Daryl Graham was hit by a pitch that forced Webb in from third with the tying run.

When Brazle finally did throw a strike Scram made him pay for it as he lined a game-winning single just under the shortstops glove that scored Blevins from third.

“I was excited to get up in that situation to hit, it was a low and away pitch that I just tried to go the other way with and got a little base hit in the gap,” Scram said.

Randa (3-2) allowed no earned runs and just two hits in 3 2/3 innings of relief.

Needing to defeat Seward twice to advance to the NJCAA College World Series, the Tigers decided to start their ace Josh Wahpehah in the first game. Wahpepah, who was rocked for 10 earned runs in four innings in a 10-7 loss to Garden City on Thursday, did not fare much better against the Saints.

Seward scored three runs with two outs in the first inning and added a run in the second to lead 4-0. Cowley cut the Saints’ lead to 4-3 in the top of the third thanks to a pair of RBI singles by Linville and White, and a sacrifice fly by H. Harrigan that scored Linville from third.

However, Seward got the runs back in the bottom half of the inning as they got a RBI single from Clint Wages and a two-run single by Jason Van Kooten to lead 7-3.

Wahpepah, the Jayhawk East Most Valuable Player, settled down on the mound and kept the Saints scoreless over the next three innings of play, and Cowley pulled within 7-5 as they scratched across a couple of runs in the top of the fifth inning.

Seward increased its lead to 8-5 on a RBI double by Cody Staten in the seventh, and after Doug Yarholer drew a two-out walk, Wahpepah was relieved on the mound by Travis Kliewer. Wahpepah (11-3) surrendered 10 hits, three walks and hit four batters in his 6 2/3 innings on the mound.

After posting a record of 11-1 and an earned run average of 1.24 during the regular season, Wahpepah lost both of his starts in the tournament, and allowed 18 runs, 17 hits, 10 walks, and five hit batsmen in 10 2/3 innings pitched.

"I don’t know what happened, he just didn’t have it,” Cowley assistant Darren Burroughs said. “Sometimes you have just got to tip your hat to the other team.”

Seward’s Greg Witkowski relieved Eric Maydew on the mound with one out in the top of the fifth inning, and picked up the win by throwing 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

White, who had his first career four hit game in the defeat, was proud of the character the team displayed in the tournament.

“To lose the first game and come back and knock four teams out of the tournament showed how hard we battled,” White said. “It’s sad to have it end like this, but I’m proud of how hard we played.”

Cowley finishes a season in which they won the Jayhawk Eastern Conference Division title for the ninth time in the last 10 years, and advanced to the finals of the Region VI Tournament for the eighth time in the last 10 years, with a record of 43-19.

The victory over the Tigers sends Seward County to the NJCAA College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo., for the first time in head coach Galen McSpadden’s 23 years as coach of the Saints. The World Series will start Saturday and run through June 5.

Cowley will say goodbye to 12 sophomores. The sophomores are Wahpepah, Richardson, White, Linville, Blevins, Overstreet, H. Harrigan, Henry, Randa, Chase Ohme, Steven Wright, and Andrew Smith.

“This was a good group of sophomores,” said assistant coach Darren Burroughs. “We will have a hard time replacing them. But, hopefully, this experience in the tournament is something the freshman can build on.”

Saturday's Games

Sunday's Games