March 5, 2009

Tiger baseball holds on for 9-8 win over Hutchinson

Playing at Hutchinson Community College on Wednesday, the Cowley College baseball team built an 8-1 lead and then held off a furious rally by the Blue Dragons to win 9-8.

The win over Hutchinson was Cowley’s second in the last six days. As was the case in the first meeting, Cowley sophomore Calvin Drinnen had the Blue Dragon hitters searching for answers.

Drinnen allowed just two hits and one run in five innings pitched as he improved to 3-0 on the season. In two games versus Hutchinson, Drinnen has allowed only four hits and one run in nine innings pitched.

Freshman Quinton Bane from Sedan followed Drinnen on the mound and pitched a scoreless sixth inning. However, Drinnen’s stellar effort on the mound was nearly spoiled by the Tiger bullpen as Hutchinson scored seven runs over the game’s final three innings of play.

Cowley led 6-1 after three innings, and increased its lead to 8-1 heading into the seventh inning. Hutchinson then scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, and added two more runs in the eighth to pull within 8-5.

The Tigers scratched across an unearned run in the top of the ninth inning before Hutchinson made things interesting in its final at bat.

Chase Webb came on in relief of Trevor Rosenthal to pitch the ninth inning and surrendered a two-run homer to the Blue Dragons’ Adam Roy with one out in the inning. Webb then walked Trevor Adams and gave up a single to Mace Krol to put runners on first and second.

Cowley then summoned Matt Garcia to relieve Webb on the mound. Garcia promptly got Dan Klein to fly out for the second out of the inning. However, Shaun Hoover kept the rally going with an RBI single that cut Cowley’s lead to 9-8. Hoover advanced to second on the throw home, while Krol moved to third base.

With the tying and winning runs on base, Garcia got Jon Schneider to fly out to centerfield to end the game.

The victory was Cowley’s fourth in its last five games and improves the Tigers’ record to 8-5 on the season.

Freshman catcher Mac Gordon led Cowley at the plate as he went 3-for-4 with three doubles and two runs batted in. Seven of the Tigers’ 14 hits were doubles.

Luke Zeller added two hits and two runs batted in, while B.J. Misialek and Frank Specht finished with two hits a piece.

Roy finished with three RBI’s for the Blue Dragons, and Krol hit his second home run of the season in the defeat. Hutchinson starter David Holman (0-1) took the loss as he was tagged for six hits and six runs in three innings pitched.

Cowley will open conference play on Saturday when they play a doubleheader at Coffeyville at 2 p.m.