Zagar, Freeland help lead Tigers to 1-0 lead over Seward in sub-regional

Hosting 11^th-seed Seward County in the best-of-three sub-regional played on Wednesday in Arkansas City, the fourth-seed Cowley College baseball team run-ruled the Saints 11-1 to take a 1-0 series lead.

Cowley is now 42-10, and Seward falls to 26-30. The teams will play again on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Tiger Ball Park.

Cowley started fast on Wednesday as they scored four runs in the first inning and two more in the second to lead 6-0. Dax McCaskill had a two-run double, and Carter Freeland had a two-run single in the four-run first.

Seward starting pitcher Braden Whipple was charged with six runs in his one-plus inning of work.

Seward's lone run came in the fourth inning. Leading 6-1, Cowley broke the game open with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and run-ruled the Saints when Freeland tripled home Logan Groh in the bottom of the eighth.

Freeland went 3-for-5 with three runs batted in and was just a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.  Zagar struck out six, allowing only six hits and one run in six innings pitched.

"Kyler had another good outing, and Carter has made some nice adjustments at the plate and has been good for us," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said.

McCaskill drove in three more runs to give him a team-leading 58 batted in. Groh also drove in three and is batting .389.

The winner of the sub-regional will advance to play at the Region VI Tournament on May 13-17 in Salina, KS.

Score by inning:             R H E

Seward 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 1 8 0

Cowley 4 2 0 0 0 4 0 1 – 11 9 0