March 15, 2010

Tiger baseball opens conference play with pair of wins

Getting strong starting pitching and timely hitting, the Cowley College baseball team opened conference play by sweeping a doubleheader against Fort Scott Saturday in Arkansas City.

Sophomore Zach Cargill allowed just one run in five innings in a 6-2 win of game one, and freshman Robbie Rea tossed six scoreless innings in a 11-2 win of game two. Cowley has now won five games in a row to improve to 8-5 overall and 2-0 in the Jayhawk East. Fort Scott falls to 5-8 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

Cowley scored three runs in the first inning of game one and added a run in each of the next three innings to lead 6-1 after four innings of play. Derik Grimes’ two-run homer highlighted the three-run first inning.

Fort Scott would score a run off Tiger reliever Stephen Spirlock in the sixth to cut the Tigers’ lead to 6-2, but Spirlock retired all three batters he faced in the seventh to preserve the win.

Aaron Rea finished with two runs batted in, while Cargill improved to 3-1 on the season.

With Robbie Rea allowing just two hits in six innings the Tigers led Fort Scott 2-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning of game two. Grimes would hit a two-run double and Glasser followed with a RBI double to open Cowley’s lead to 5-0.

The Tigers would get run scoring singles from Chance Ross, Aaron Rea and Connor Duckhorn in a six-run seventh inning as Cowley went on to an 11-2 win.

Robbie Rea struck out five and walked only one as he improved to 2-1 on the season. Phillip Wilson allowed one hit and two runs, one of which was earned, in his two innings of relief. Chase Webb capped the sweep in dramatic fashion by striking out all three batters he faced to end the game.

Ross and Aaron Rea each finished with two hits as Cowley out-hit Fort Scott 13-3 in game two. Cowley had 22 hits in the doubleheader. The Tigers are averaging 8.7 runs per game.

Cowley will play a doubleheader at Allen County Tuesday at 2 p.m. Allen County split a doubleheader against Coffeyville on Saturday and is 7-5 overall and 1-1 in the Jayhawk East.