Cowley softball clinches fifth straight conference title

The dominance continues! Sweeping a pair of games at Allen County Monday, the No. 4-ranked Cowley College softball team clinched its fifth straight Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division title.

The Lady Tigers won the first game 3-1 and then took the nightcap by a score of 8-6.

“Our players have found a way to get the job done in close games,” Cowley head coach Ed Hargrove said. “The freshmen and sophomores have been very instrumental to our success. It’s nice we will have this group of freshmen back next year to hopefully carry on the tradition.”

In the first game, Jacey Juden struck out 10 and walked none as she improved to 16-4 on the season. Juden lowered her earned run average to 1.71.

“Jacey has really turned into what I think is the premiere pitcher in the Jayhawk East,” Hargrove said.

Freshman Kashilia Young broke the schools all-time record for home runs in a season as she hit her 24th home run in the top of the first inning of game one. Young would add a two-run homer in the second game and is now batting .522 with 25 home runs and 73 runs batted in. Young is closing in on the school-record of 75 RBI’s set by Suzanne Kerr-Unruh in 1998.

In the second game, Cowley led 7-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. However, three errors by the Lady Tigers allowed Allen County to score four times in the sixth.

With its lead cut to 7-6, Juden gave Cowley some breathing room by belting a solo home run with two outs in the seventh.

Breayle Tackett retired the side in order in the bottom half of the inning as Cowley escaped with the 8-6 win. Tackett allowed seven hits and just two earned runs as she improved to 4-3 on the season.

Young finished with three hits, while Sara Smith went 2-for-4 with two doubles. Kim Noble added a pair of hits and two RBI’s.

Cowley is now 34-8 overall and 16-1 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Allen County falls to 22-24 overall and 9-6 in the conference.

The Lady Tigers will make up the second game of their doubleheader that was postponed due to rain Last Thursday in Independence by playing a single game at Independence Wednesday at 3 p.m.