February 22, 2006

No. 9-ranked Tigers win at Butler 11-8

Coming off a difficult loss at Seminole State last Wednesday, the No. 9-ranked Cowley College baseball team bounced back with an impressive 11-8 win at Butler Tuesday.

“I was happy with our guys,” Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said. “Offensively, we scored about every way imaginable. It was good to see how we responded after the loss to Seminole.”

Cowley, which finished with 13 hits in the win, held a 10-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. However, Butler scored four runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth to close within 11-8.

After the Grizzlies put the lead off man on base to start the bottom of the ninth, Tiger reliever Kyle Thornton struck out the next two batters and then got Jay Pitschka to fly out to preserve the win. The save was Thornton’s second of the season.

Tiger starter Jeremy Sheehan (2-0) picked up his second win of the year as he allowed just one hit and no runs in his two innings of work. Freshman Kent Williamson relieved Sheehan on the mound to start the third inning and went on to strike out five in two innings of scoreless relief.

“Sheehan and Williams were exceptional,” Burroughs said.

Burroughs was also pleased with the performances of sophomores Kendall Cogan and Bryce Bartelson in their inning of relief.

Offensively, Cowley was led by lead off batter Blake Mitchell, who went 4-for-5 with three stolen bases. Mitchell got things started for the Tigers by leading off the game with a single, then stealing second and third, before scoring on an infield single by Brett Becker.

“He set the tone yesterday,” Burroughs said. “He’s a good base runner and is a threat to steal every time he is on base.”

Becker also had a big game as he went 2-for-5 with three runs batted in.

Cowley got a two-run home run from Michael Dabbs in the first inning, and a solo homer from Mitch McCuistion in the eighth. The home run by McCuistion was his second in three games.

The Tigers are now 2-1 on the season. Cowley will be back in action today when they play a single nine-inning game at Hutchinson at 2 p.m.

“Hutchinson returns a pretty solid core and are the defending champs of our region, so it gives us something to look forward to,” Burroughs said. “We showed some progress against Butler, so it will be interesting to see how we respond against Hutchinson.

Score by inning:                     R  H  E
Cowley 3 3 1 0 0 2 4 0 1 0 — 11 13 3
Butler    0 0 0 0 0 1 4 3 0 —    8   7  1