April 29, 2008

Cowley baseball sweeps Neosho, defends conference title

With a pair of wins at Neosho County on Monday, the Cowley College baseball team made it back-to-back Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division titles. Even more amazing, the conference title was the Tigers 12th in the past 14 years.

After starting the season 2-8 against a rugged non-conference schedule, Cowley has won 31 of its last 40 games and are now 33-17 overall and 28-8 in the Jayhawk East.

“The guys did a good job of overcoming the adversity of tradition and other things that happened this year,” Cowley assistant coach Darren Burroughs said. “The guys have done well keeping the game in perspective.”

On Monday, the Tigers got strong outings on the mound from Curt Simpson and Calvin Drinnen. Simpson allowed seven hits and three runs in the Tigers’ 7-5 win of game one. Simpson allowed one run in the first inning, but held the Panthers scoreless after that until the seventh inning.

With Cowley leading 7-1, Neosho County had its first two batters reach base in the bottom of the seventh inning. Alex Schell relieved Simpson on the mound and allowed the inherited runners to score. A single by Neosho County’s Jake Kleine scored two more runs and chased Schell from the game.

Michael Flanagin relieved Schell and struck out the only two batters he faced to preserve the 7-5 win.

Cowley had just five hits in the win, but benefited from seven walks. Tom O’Gorman and Frank Specht each went 2-for-4 with a double.

In the second game, freshman Calvin Drinnen pitched a complete game three-hit shutout as the Tigers routed Neosho County 9-0. Drinnen struck out five and walked two.

“Calvin did a really good job staying focused on the mound,” Burroughs said.

The Tigers hit three doubles in a four-run second inning and hit five doubles in the 9-0 win. Five players had at least two hits as Cowley finished the game with 13 hits.

O’Gorman went 2-for-3 with a double and a run batted in and was 4-for-7 with two doubles and three RBI’s in the doubleheader.

“Tom’s been doing a good job, he has made some adjustments to drive the ball the other way again,” Burroughs said.

Specht went 2-for-4 with two runs scored in the nightcap, and scored four times in the two games.

Cowley, the top-seed in the East, will host Garden City in this weekend’s sub-regional. The Broncbusters (21-28 overall), are the eighth seed in the Jayhawk West. The teams will play a best of three series beginning with two games on Saturday. The first game will start at noon and the second game at 3 p.m. If a third game is needed it will be played Sunday at 1 p.m.

The winner will advance to play at the Region VI Tournament at Wichita’s Lawrence Dumont Stadium May 8-12.

“It’s always fun when the playoffs start,” Burroughs said. “Now everybody is zero and zero, we have got to play with intensity from the get go.”

Score by inning:
Game one		R	H	E
Cowley	0 5 1 1 0 0 0 —	7	5	1
Neosho	1 0 0 0 0 0 4 —	5	9	0
Game two		R	H	E
Cowley	0 4 1 1 2 0 1 —	9	13	0
Neosho	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 —	0	3	0