February 27, 2006

Tigers drop two of three at Eastern Oklahoma

Still trying to get settled at many key positions, the No. 9-ranked Cowley College baseball team dropped two of three games played at Eastern Oklahoma State College over the weekend.

The Tigers opened the three-game series with a 5-1 win on Saturday. However, Eastern Oklahoma bounced back to sweep a doubleheader on Sunday by scores of 3-2 and 13-4.

“The disappointing thing is after adversity hits, we just seem to fold our tent,” Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said.

Sophomore Jeremy Sheehan (3-0) started on the mound on Saturday and allowed only one base runner in two innings as he picked up his third win of the season. Freshman Kent Williamson followed with two scoreless innings, and Cowley built a 5-0 lead before Eastern Oklahoma scored an unearned run off Kyle Thornton in the bottom of the ninth as five pitchers combined on a three-hitter.

“Sheehan and Williamson both threw well again,” Burroughs said.

Michael Dabbs and Patrick D’Aoust each went 2-for-4 with two runs scored in the win.

On Sunday, Cowley got a two-run home run from Dabbs in the top of the third inning as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Brad Miller started on the mound for the Tigers and pitched three scoreless innings before being relieved by Lance Hoge in the bottom of the fourth.

Hoge surrendered a leadoff double to Chance Gerloff to start the bottom of the fourth, and then gave up a two-run homer to Tim Sogan that tied the game at 2-2.

An error to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning turned out to be costly for the Tigers, as the Mountaineer’s Craig Price would come around to score what would turn out to be the winning run.

Hoge (0-1) took the loss despite allowing just one hit after the two-run homer by Sogan. He also struck out six and walked two in his three innings pitched.

Dabbs finished with two of the Tigers’s four hits in the 3-2 defeat.

In the final game on Sunday, Eastern Oklahoma scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning off Tiger starter Matt Peck. After Cowley cut the Mountaineer’s lead to 6-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Eastern Oklahoma ended the Tigers’ threat by scoring three runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, and three more in the eighth.

Cowley out-hit Eastern Oklahoma 10-9 in the loss, but four Tiger pitchers combined to walk five batters and hit three more.

Nick Troilo led Cowley at the plate as he went 2-for-5 with two runs batted in and a run scored while batting in the leadoff spot. Brent Hodge also swung the bat well as he went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

Cowley is now 3-4 on the season. The Tigers will now prepare for their home opener against Hutchinson Tuesday at 3 p.m.

“It’s a big day, we just don’t know what we will get from our team,” Burroughs said.

Score by inning:

Saturday                                       R H E
Cowley          0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 — 5 8 1
E. Oklahoma 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 1 3 1

Sunday

Game one                              R H E
Cowley         0 0 2 0 0 0 0 — 2 4 1                 
E. Oklahoma 0 0 0 2 1 0 x — 3 3 0

Game two                                     R H E
Cowley          1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 — 4 10 2
E. Oklahoma 5 0 0 0 1 3 1 3 x — 13 9 0