April 2, 2009

Baseball rallies for doubleheader sweep at Coffeyville

Having opened up conference play with a doubleheader sweep of Coffeyville Community College by a combined score of 38-3, the Cowley College baseball team looked as if they would coast to another pair of easy wins Wednesday in Coffeyville as they defeated the Red Ravens 10-0 in game one.

However, the Tigers fell behind early in the second game and needed a late rally to win the nightcap 7-5 in eight innings. With the two wins, Cowley improves to 21-9 overall and 12-4 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division.

“I was glad to see we could come back,” Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs said. “We showed some grit to come back and win that second game.”

In game one, Cowley freshman Zach Cargill allowed just two hits, while striking out eight and walking one in the six-inning run-rule win. Cargill improved to 4-0 and lowered his earned run average to 1.85.

“He was outstanding,” Burroughs said. “He was in complete control of the game.”

Cowley opened the first game with three runs in the first inning and increased its lead to 9-0 after a three-run homer by Frank Specht in the top of the fourth inning. The homer was Specht’s team-leading fourth of the season. Specht also leads the team in on base percentage (.532), runs scored (34), walks (22), and times hit by pitch (10).

Freshman Mac Gordon added a pair of runs batted in, while Luke Zeller added to his team leading RBI total (31) with a run scoring single in the fourth.

In game two, Coffeyville chased Tiger starting pitcher John Maler from the game in the bottom of the third inning. Maler allowed just two hits, but two walks and two errors allowed Coffeyville to grab a 4-3 lead after three innings of play.

Four Tiger relievers combined to limit Coffeyville to two hits and one run over the final five innings of play. However, Cowley still trailed 5-4 heading into the top of the seventh inning.

Robert Thomas led off the seventh by reaching first base on a fielding error by the second baseman. After a sacrifice bunt by Chance Ross moved Thomas to second base with one out, B.J. Misialek and Zeller were walked to load the bases and set up the opportunity for a double play. The Red Ravens got Colt Loehrs to ground to short stop but were only able to get the out at first as Thomas scored the tying run on the play.

After Trevor Rosenthal pitched a scoreless seventh inning of relief for the Tigers, Specht led off the top of the eighth inning with a single and moved to third on back-to-back singles by Andy Petz and Mac Gordon. Following a strikeout by Thomas, Chance Ross doubled to score Specht and Petz with the go-ahead runs.

Rosenthal (1-0) pitched around a leadoff walk in the bottom half of the inning and picked up his first win of the season.

Misialek drove in three runs in the victory, while Ross added two RBI and three stolen bases. Tyler Hancock and Luke Zeller added two hits a piece.

Cowley’s doubleheader at Neosho County today has been postponed due to a wet playing field in Chanute. The games will try to be made up Friday at 1 p.m. Also, Cowley’s home doubleheader vs. Highland next Monday has been moved to Wednesday at 1 p.m.