Hutchinson takes advantage of Tigers’ miscues

Despite a valiant rally that saw the Cowley College baseball team rally from five runs down in the final two innings of play at Hutchinson Wednesday, five errors by the Tigers helped the Blue Dragons escape with a 7-6 win.

Trailing 6-1 after seven innings of play, Cowley scored two runs in the eighth inning and got a two-run single by John Chaisson and a RBI double by Frank Specht to tie the game at 6-6 in the top of the ninth inning.

Tom O’Gorman nearly put the Tigers ahead as he hit a deep fly ball that was hauled in at the warning track.

Cowley’s fifth error of the game allowed Hutchinson’s Ben Ferrell to reach base leading off the bottom of the ninth inning. Ferrell was then bunted over to second base. The Tigers’ Jared Shelton then walked the next batter but followed it up with a strikeout.

Hutchinson leftfielder Stewart Hoover then hit a fly ball that sailed over Chaisson’s head in left field to score Ferrell with the winning run.

After allowing a three-run homer to Hutchinson’s Adam Roy in the first inning, Cowley starting pitcher Chris O’Brien settled down and allowed just six hits and four earned runs in six innings pitched. O’Brien struck out six and walked one.

“After that first inning he pitched really well,” Cowley assistant coach Darren Burroughs said.

Shelton took the loss despite allowing just one hit and one unearned run in 2 2/3 innings pitched.

“We could not afford to use a lot of our bullpen yesterday and those guys responded well and gave us a chance to win,” Burroughs said.

The Tigers’ Shane Azzopardi went 2-for-2 with a RBI, while Frank Specht finished the game 2-for-5 with a RBI. Cowley out-hit Hutchinson 10-7. The Tigers are now 25-15 on the season, while Hutchinson has won 17 of its past 18 games to improve to 30-11.

Cowley will play a doubleheader at Independence today at 1 p.m. The Pirates are 19-18 overall and 13-12 in the Jayhawk East.