Tiger baseball splits with Coffeyville, inches closer to conference title

After losing the first game of its doubleheader against Coffeyville Saturday at City Ball Park, the Cowley College baseball team came back to win the second game and give themselves a chance to clinch the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division title today at Neosho County.

By winning the nightcap of its doubleheader against Coffeyville, the Tigers’ magic number of wins for clinching the conference title stands at one. If Cowley can win at least one of its two games at Neosho County today, or have Johnson County lose at least one of its two games at Highland, the Tigers will win the conference title for the second straight year and 12th time in the past 14 years.

“We are well aware of what we need to do,” Cowley assistant coach Darren Burroughs said. “We just need to have fun and go at it the way we are capable of going at it.”

On Saturday, Coffeyville lefthander Corey White  limited Cowley to four hits in the Tigers’ 3-1 loss of game one. Cowley’s Stephen Kohlscheen took the loss as he allowed three runs, only one of which was earned, in 4 2/3 innings pitched. Zack Potter pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief or the Tigers.

In game two, Coffeyville threw another lefthander at the Tigers as Jake Micheltree started on the mound for the Red Ravens. Tom O’Gorman hit his team-high eighth home run of the season and Brice Cole (pictured) went 3-for-4 as Cowley pounded out 10 hits in a 7-2 win.

“We were able to make some adjustments at the plate and had a lot better approach in the second game,” Burroughs said.

Chase Roten allowed just two runs in 5 2/3 innings as he picked up the win on the mound. Roten lowered his earned run average to 2.63 and is now 4-0 on the season. Alex Schell relieved Roten and recorded the final four outs of the game.

Cowley is now 31-17 overall and 26-8 in the Jayhawk East, while Coffeyville is 15-23 overall and 15-19 in the conference.