Kansas City eliminates Cowley from Region VI Baseball Tournament

Getting a stellar pitching performance from Mitch Handley, the Kansas City Community College baseball team eliminated Cowley College from the Region VI Tournament by a score of 7-2 Tuesday night at Lawrence Dumont Stadium.

Handley worked fast and effectively as the Tigers hit into 15 ground ball outs. The 6-foot-1-sophomore right-hander scattered nine hits and held Cowley scoreless until Chase Roten’s two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning.

Kansas City (35-18), which finished seven games behind the Tigers in the Jayhawk East, then defeated Johnson County 16-7 and forced a final game between the teams to be played tonight at 7 p.m. The winner will advance to the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.

After watching the Tigers last two opponents steal a total of 18 bases, the Blue Devils stole seven bases of their own.

Kansas City got things started quickly as Chase Roten hit the Blue Devils’ Rich Kiec with the first pitch of the game. Kiec then stole second base on Roten’s next pitch. Kevin Logan hit Roten’s third pitch into right field for a RBI single, putting Kansas City on top 1-0. Logan then stole second on Roten’s fourth pitch of the game and later came around to score on a single by Wade Schwerdtfeger.

Kansas City’s lead would grow to 4-0 in the fourth inning. Schwerdtfeger and Ben Pieper led off the inning with singles and advanced to second and third with nobody out after a passed ball by Tiger catcher Andy Petz. Schwerdtfeger would score on a ground out to second by Jared Herbert, while Pieper scored on a fielders choice by Jarid Renzelman. On the play, Renzelman hit a ground ball to third baseman Tom O’Gorman, who fired home, but Pieper slid under the tag of Petz for the Blue Devils’ fourth run of the game.

Kansas City would add another run in the top of the fifth as Zach Theademan singled, stole second, and scored on Travis Parker’s single.

Roten took the loss as he allowed nine hits and five runs in seven innings pitched. He struck out four and did not walk a batter, although he did hit one batter.

Kansas City tacked on two more runs off Tiger reliever Zack Potter in the eighth. Theademan and Schwerdtfeger finished with three hits apiece as the Blue Devils had 13 hits in the game.

Cowley finishes the season with a record of 37-19. The Tigers came back from losing eight of its first 10 games to capture its second straight conference title and 12th Jayhawk East title in the past 14 seasons.

O’Gorman drove in seven runs in the Tigers’ four games in the tournament, while Brice Cole reached base 12 times. Heath Wall went 6-for-13 with four RBI’s in the four games. All three players are sophomores, as the Tigers will say goodbye to 11 sophomores on its roster. However, they will return a strong nucleus of players for next season.