C-Ville splits with Lady Tigers

Benefiting from four straight errors by the No. 2-ranked Cowley College softball team, Coffeyville Community College scored six runs in the top of the seventh inning of the second game of a doubleheader played Wednesday in Arkansas City as they came away with a split of the two games.

Cowley won the first game by a score of 5-2 before losing game two 7-1.

After winning 30 games in a row at home, the Lady Tigers have dropped two of its past three home contests.

"You want to win these kind of games at home if you want to contend in the conference," Cowley head coach Ed Hargrove said. "Our defense exploded on us in that seventh inning."

With the score tied 1-1 in the seventh inning of game two, Cowley starting pitcher Brooke Benge walked the leadoff batter. Despite allowing only two hits, the walk was Benge's third of the game and was enough to have Hargrove summon freshman Taya Haney into the game.

The first batter Haney faced, Bailey Myers, hit a ball back to Haney but she mishandled it for an error. Haney then walked Leeza Enfield to load the bases with nobody out.

Tara Malaske followed by hitting a groundball to Caitlyn Cosme at third base, but Cosme could not handle the grounder leading to the second error of the inning and allowing leadoff batter Lakin Palmer to score the go-ahead run.

Haney then got Ashley Rankin to hit a come backer to her on the mound but again was unable to handle the grounder, thus allowing Myers to score from third.

Kourtney Herrera followed with a two-run single and advanced to second on a throwing error by centerfielder Jordan Haya. While, Kayla Manzanares capped the scoring with an RBI single.

ShyAnne Wells earned the win for the Lady Red Ravens as she allowed only five hits, while going the distance on the mound. Benge (5-1) suffered her first loss of the season despite allowing only two hits and one earned run in six innings pitched.

Sophomore second baseman Stephanie Couser hit a three-run homer in the first game and went 4-for-6 in the doubleheader. Couser is 8-for-12 with four extra base hits in her last four games and is batting .477 on the season.

"The softball must look like a beach ball coming to the plate for her right now," Hargrove said.

Freshman outfielder Morgan Swisher went 3-for-5 in the doubleheader to keep her average at .600 on the season.

Sophomore Jessica Seay (5-1) pitched shutout ball the first six innings of game one before allowing back-to-back home runs to Herrera and Malaske to lead off the top of the seventh inning. Seay settled down to finish the game and earn her fifth win of the season. Seay struck out seven and walked none as she lowered her earned run average to 2.33.

Cowley is now 12-3 overall and 4-2 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, while Coffeyville moves to 6-14 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

Cowley will now turn its focus to playing six games in two days at the Midwest Softball Classic held Saturday and Sunday in Broken Arrow, OK.

On Saturday, Cowley will face Southeast Nebraska at 9 a.m. before playing Eastern Oklahoma at 1 p.m. and North Central Texas at 5 p.m.

The Lady Tigers will return to action Sunday when they play Ellsworth (IA) at 11 a.m., Marshalltown (IA) at 3 p.m., and Angelina (TX) at 5 p.m.

"We talked about this week defining our season, so for us to have a successful week we need to try to go 5-1 or better down there."

Score by inning:

Game one R H E

Coffeyville 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 2 5 1

Cowley 0 0 2 0 0 3 x - 5 9 0

Game two R H E

Coffeyville 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 - 7 4 2

Cowley 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 6