April 24, 2006                    

Tiger baseball sweeps Independence, wraps up second in Jayhawk East

Playing its final regular season conference games Saturday in Independence, the Cowley College baseball team knocked off the Pirates 12-11 and 11-7 to wrap up second place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division.

If not for the three wins the Tigers were forced to forfeit, Cowley would have won its third straight conference title and 11th title in the last 12 years. However, the Tigers (33-18 overall, 24-12 Jayhawk East) have to be content with finishing three games behind conference champion Neosho County (39-13 overall, 27-9 Jayhawk East).

Cowley has not let the forfeits of the three wins distract them as they have won six straight games.

In game one, Independence chased Tiger starter Matt Peck from the game after recording just five outs. The Pirates scored six runs in the first inning and two more in the second to lead 8-5.

Cowley rallied to take the lead with a five-run fourth inning, and led 12-8 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. Independence scored two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to make it a 12-11 ball game, but Kyle Thornton pitched a scoreless seventh inning to preserve the win and record his 15th save of the season.

Jason Sowers led Cowley at the plate as he went 3-for-3 and hit his first home run of the season, while Brad Miller blasted his seventh home run in the win.

J.C. Bredengerd relieved Peck on the mound and allowed one earned run in 2 1/3 innings of relief as he improved to 3-0 on the season.

In game two, Cowley had a 7-0 lead cut to 8-7 before holding on to win 11-7.

The Tigers scored three runs in both the first and second inning, and added a run in the top of the fourth to lead 7-0. Independence finally got to Cowley starter Kyle Dotson in the fourth inning as they pushed three runs across the plate.

After the Tigers scored a run in the top of the fifth, the Pirates chased Dotson from the game in the bottom half of the inning as they scored four more runs to make it a one-run game.

That would be as close as Independence would get as Cowley would score three more runs and get two scoreless innings of relief from Bryce Bartelson. The save for Bartelson was his first of the season.

Five Tigers had two hits in the win as Cowley out-hit Independence 13-5. Freshman Mitch McCuistion belted his sixth home run of the season and went 2-for-4, while Blake Mitchell, Michael Dabbs, Cole Waddell and Miller each added two hits in the win.

Kyle Dotson (1-4) allowed four earned runs in four innings pitched as he picked up his first win of the season.

The Tigers will be back in action today when  they play a nine-inning game at Northeastern Oklahoma A& M at 2 p.m.

Score by inning:

Game one                     R H E
Cowley 4 1 1 5 1 0 0 – 12 11 1
Indy      6 2 0 0 2 1 0 — 11 15 1

Game two                     R H E
Cowley 3 3 0 1 1 2 1 — 11 13 1
Indy      0 0 0 3 4 0 0 — 7 5 0