May 13, 2009

Tigers rally for improbable wins, set up championship showdown

Four outs away from being eliminated from the Region VI Tournament, the Cowley College baseball team displayed its Tiger magic as they got a two-run homer from freshman Ryan Hege as they rallied to beat Colby Community College 4-3 Tuesday at Wichita’s Lawrence Dumont Stadium. The victory advanced the Tigers to the championship round, where they would face unbeaten Seward County.

After falling behind Seward County 9-3, Cowley rallied to score 12 unanswered runs as they came from behind to win 15-12. The win over the Saints sets up a rematch between the two teams Wednesday night at 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to the JUCO World Series.

Cowley is now 46-13, while Seward County falls to 36-21.

In the game vs. Colby, Trojan starter mark Phillips, who was 12-0 on the season, held the Tigers in check as Colby built leads of 2-0 and 3-2. However, after Phillips struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the eighth inning, B.J. Misialek walked and Hege followed with a deep drive that carried over the center field wall for what turned out to be the winning runs.

Calvin Drinnen, who relieved Tiger starter John Maler in the top of the seventh inning, worked around a leadoff single by Boston Langley in the ninth inning to preserve the win. Drinnen allowed just one hit in three innings, while striking out three and walking none as he improved to 6-0 on the season.

Maler worked his way out of trouble in the top of the second inning. With runners at second and third and only one out, Maler struck out the Trojans’ Jordan Smith and Drew Ziegler to end the threat. However, Maler couldn’t work out of another jam in the top of the third inning.

After retiring the first two batters in the third, Maler allowed back-to-back singles to put runners at first and second. Designated hitter Brendan Miller then hit a long drive over right fielder Colt Loehrs’ head that scored the first two runs of the game.

Cowley got a run back in the bottom of the third inning as Tyler Hancock walked to lead off the inning, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Matt Garcia, and came around to score on a two-out single up the middle by Robert Thomas.

Colby manufactured a run in the top of the fourth as Jordan Smith struck out but reached first base on a passed ball by Tiger catcher Mac Gordon on the third strike to start the inning. Drew Ziegler then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Smith to second, before Smith stole third. A sacrifice fly to center field by Aritz Garcia scored Smith to put the Trojans ahead 3-1.

 Cowley loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the fifth inning as they had three straight hits to start the inning. Unfortunately, the Tigers could plate only one run on Chance Ross’ sacrifice fly to right field, which scored Tyler Hancock from third.

Maler pitched into the seventh inning, allowing six hits and three runs. He struck out five and walked two.
Against Seward County, Cowley got on the board first as Misialek homered in the top of the first inning, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. However, the Saints responded with a run in the bottom of the first, two more in the second, and chased Cowley starting pitcher Zach Cargill from the game with two outs as another run crossed the plate in the bottom of the third inning.

Leading 4-3, Seward County would score five runs in the fourth inning on three hits and two errors by the Tigers as its lead grew to 9-3.

Jared Wagner, who relieved Saints’ starting pitcher Jared Schultz with one out in the third inning, ran into trouble in the top of the fifth. Wagner hit the first two batters in the fifth, and then walked Mac Gordon and Andy Petz to force in a run. Frank Specht then greeted Saints’ reliever Avrem Carlson by blasting a grand slam home run to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 9-8.

Cowley would tie the game at 9-9 on a run scoring single by Ronald Melendez in the sixth, and would bust the game open with six runs in the seventh. Colt Loehrs put Cowley ahead with a two-run double and Gordon followed with a two-run double of his own. Andy Petz and Melendez would add run scoring doubles in the inning.

Trevor Rosenthal retired eight straight batters at one point and was in control on the mound before running out of gas in the bottom of the eighth inning. Seward struck for three runs off Rosenthal and had the bases loaded when Chase Webb was summoned from the bullpen to relieve Rosenthal on the mound. Webb got Travis Parker to groundout to end the inning and preserve the Tigers’ three-run lead.

Webb then pitched a scoreless ninth inning as Cowley won their fourth game in the past two days. Cowley will hope they have a little magic left as they attempt to get back to the JUCO World Series after a one-year absence.

Rosenthal (2-0) earned the win as he allowed only two earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. Rosenthal struck out six and walked three. Webb notched his seventh save of the season.

Chance Ross had three of the Tigers’ 16 hits, while four other Tigers had two hits apiece. Keegan Morrow went 4-for-6 with two RBI in the loss for the Saints.

Wednesday night’s championship game can be heard on KSOK Radio 95.9 FM.