Tigers take advantage of free passes to sweep doubleheader vs. Coffeyville

Demonstrating patience at the plate, the No. 5-ranked Cowley College baseball team drew 24 walks in a sweep of a doubleheader against Coffeyville on Thursday in Arkansas City. The Tigers walked off Coffeyville 8-7 in the opener before run-ruling the Red Ravens 16-6 in game two.

Cowley improves to 22-5 overall and remains in a tie with Johnson County atop the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division standings with a record of 11-3. Coffeyville falls to 17-9 overall and 9-5 in the conference.

In game one, Coffeyville scored two runs off Kyler Zagar, who got the start for Cowley in the opener. However, the Tigers answered with two runs in the bottom of the second inning and scored three more in the third to lead 5-2. Cowley's three-run-third came courtesy of a run-scoring triple by Logan Groh and a two-run homer by Cade Baldridge. The homer was the fifth of the season for Baldridge.

The Red Ravens would get two of the runs back in the top of the fourth inning and chased Zagar from the game on Cooper Miller's two-run single that pulled Coffeyville within 5-4.

Delton Roberts relieved Zagar and prevented further damage as the score remained 5-4.

After a hit batsman and an error by the Tigers put runners at second and third with only one out, Chance Acord relieved Roberts on the mound and promptly allowed a game-tying single before Harrison Smith followed with a sacrifice fly that scored the go-ahead run as Coffeyville went in front 6-5.

Cowley would tie the game at 6-6 on an RBI single by Seth Dandridge with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning. However, Coffeyville would get the run back in the top of the sixth inning to go back in front 7-6.

The Tigers took advantage of having Coffeyville starting pitcher Cross Dowd removed from the game after five innings as they immediately went to work against Red Raven reliever Dallas Goodpasture in the bottom of the sixth.

Baldridge led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and scored the tying run when Ian Luce singled, and Coffeyville right fielder Brady Shackelford had an errant throw in an attempt to get Baldridge out at third.  

Cowley sophomore Barrett Morgan came on to pitch a scoreless seventh inning.

"Barrett came in and did exactly what we needed him to do and gave us a chance to win the game," Burroughs said.

Seth Dandridge led off the bottom of the seventh inning by hitting a deep fly ball that was misplayed by the centerfielder, allowing Dandridge to end up at third.

After a pair of walks loaded the bases, Ian Luce singled home Dandridge with the winning run.

The teams combined for 10 errors in the contest.

"It was not a very clean game, but we found a way to win," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

Hitting in the top two spots on the batting order, Baldridge and Luce each went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs batted in.

The Tigers did not wait long to jump all over Coffeyville in game two as they got home runs from Dax McCaskill and Carter Freeland in a six-run first inning. The homer for McCaskill was his team-leading seventh of the season, while the homer for Freeland was his second.

Cowley would tack on single runs in the second and third innings before scoring three runs in the fourth inning to lead 11-0.

After cruising through the game's first four innings, Cowley starting pitcher Russ Smith was tagged for five runs in the fifth. Smith (2-1) allowed eight hits and four earned runs while striking out four and walking one in five innings.

"Russ gave us a good start. He may have gotten a little fatigued in the fifth inning, but we are trying to stretch him out," Burroughs said.

Cowley answered with three runs in the bottom of the fifth and went on to the 16-6, seven-inning victory.

The Tigers walked nine times in the opener and 15 times in game two, while Cowley pitchers walked only four batters in the doubleheader.

Freeland went 2-for-3 with a home run and four runs batted in, while Luce drove in three runs. Logan Smith, Quinn Groebl, and Logan Groh walked three times apiece.

Mark Hoffman finished off the victory as he allowed two hits and one run in two innings of relief.

"We will use this as a building block and will continue to try to get better each time we take the field," Burroughs said.

The teams will conclude the four-game series by playing a doubleheader in Coffeyville on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Score by inning:

Game one                         R H E

Coffeyville 2 0 0 2 2 1 0 – 7 9 6

Cowley       0 2 3 0 1 1 1 – 8 11 4

Game two                          R H E

Coffeyville 0 0 0 0 5 0 1 – 6 10 3

Cowley      6 1 1 3 3 1 1 – 16 9 2