No. 17-ranked Butler stymies Lady Tigers in doubleheader sweep

Hosting No. 17-ranked Butler Community College in a doubleheader on Monday at Ed Hargrove Field in Arkansas City, the Cowley College softball team lost a close 3-2 contest in the opening game before losing 13-6 in game two.

Cowley is now 22-10, while Butler improves to 23-5.

In Monday's opener, Butler hit a pair of home runs off Cowley starting pitcher Micah Vann and held on to win behind strong pitching efforts from Chloe Odle (8-2) and Addy Ewing. Odle allowed only four hits in six innings before Ewing retired the side in order in the seventh to earn the save.

Vann (12-4) went the distance on the mound but took the loss, as she has now allowed 18 home runs on the season.

Freshman shortstop Taverli Tennant had two of Cowley's four hits.

Freshman Madison Baker started on the mound for Cowley in game two and lasted only two innings. After Butler scored two more runs in the top of the third inning, freshman Aubrey Williams relieved Baker with the bases loaded and only one out. After recording the second out, Williams allowed a bases-clearing double to #1 to increase Butler's lead to 9-1.

The Grizzlies were not done there as they tacked on three more runs in the top of the fourth inning to lead 12-1.

Freshman Ellie Randall (9-1) from Wichita, KS, got the start for Butler and allowed four hits and one run in four innings. Fellow Wichitan Audry Rumsey relieved Randall on the mound to pitch the bottom of the fifth and struggled with her command, walking in a run before surrendering a grand slam home run to sophomore Jamie Molina that cut Butler's lead to 12-6. Rumsey allowed five runs while recording only one out before being relieved on the mound by Addy Ewing, who retired all eight batters she faced.

Butler's Chloe Cardona homered off Williams in the sixth to cap the scoring.

Williams allowed eight hits in five innings, but only one of the four runs she allowed were earned as the Lady Tigers committed five errors in game two. Cowley had nearly as many hits as errors in the doubleheader (11 hits, seven errors)

"Butler is a tough non-conference game with a lot of rivalry," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said. "We knew coming into the doubleheader, the team who would play the cleanest game was going to come out on top."

Cowley will put its unbeaten conference record (4-0) on the line when they play at No. 17-ranked Johnson County on Thursday at 2 p.m. The Cavaliers are 17-10 overall and tied with Cowley, Kansas City, and Neosho County at 4-0 in the conference.

"This, again, will be another tough opponent with a ton of rivalry," Hoyt said. "As a team we have to do a better job of handling our role and executing the task at hand. We have to keep looking forward and find a way to respond against Johnson."

Score by inning:

Game one                    R H E

Butler   0 1 1 0 0 1 0 – 3 7 3

Cowley 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 – 2 4 2

Game two                     R H E

Butler   0 4 5 3 0 1 0 – 13 16 2

Cowley 0 1 0 0 5 0 0 – 6 7 5