Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3 | Box Score 4 The season rolled along for Highland baseball last week with a Conference series against Cowley and yet again Mother Nature played a factor in getting the games played. The teams flipped the home-and-home series playing on Thursday at Cowley in Arkansas City, Kansas and then the Scotties hosted Cowley on Sunday.

While the Scotties had some strong performances in the four-game set it was Cowley claiming the wins in all four games as the Highland offense was unable to score enough runs to keep pace for the Tigers. Highland fell 9-1 & 14-4 at Cowley and took 6-1 and 9-3 losses at home. The losses move Highland to just 2-26 on the season and still in search of their first Conference wins of the year.

Game 1 on Thursday at Cowley
Behind a four run bottom of the first inning the Scotties saw Cowley take early control of the contest and Highland was never able to fully recover in the matchup. Cowley tacked on runs in the third and fourth innings before putting up three more in the sixth. Scotties got their lone run in the fourth inning when Dalton Burt notched a leadoff double and then Jason Gonzalez ultimately brought him in on a sac-fly in the inning. The Scotties only managed the one run on four hits and took the 9-1 loss.

Conner Fiene led the Scottie offense with two of the four hits going 2-3 at the plate, while Burt had a double and run scored and Jackson Rehkow had a hit. Jake Schrock tossed five and two-thirds innings in the loss giving up five runs (two earned) on seven hits, two walks and struckout one.

Game 2 on Thursday at Cowley
Scotties started game two strong on the road as they took advantage of one of four Cowley errors for the game and plated two runs in the Top of the first inning capitalizing on a walk and a runner reaching on a catcher's interference. Highland tacked on another in the top of the third as Nick Schifftner hit a triple and Alejandro Pina notched a sac-fly to score Schifftner giving Highland a 3-0 lead and made it 4-0 in the fifth when Schifftner scored another on a single, passed ball and error. Cowley answered in the bottom of the fifth and finished the game strong scoring four in the fifth and then put together five run innings in the sixth and seventh to take the game 14-4 over the Scotties.

Offensively a trio of Scotties had multi-hit games as Victor Sanchez, Schifftner and Jordan McClellan all had two hits. Schifftner added three runs scored to his day with a triple. On the hill Justin Rieschick was solid in his start going five and two-thirds giving up six runs on five hits and a walk, with two strikeouts and had a shutout through the first four innings.

Game 1 on Sunday vs Cowley
Just like game one in Ark City it was Cowley striking first as the Scotties surrendered three runs in the top of the first inning and were climbing in uphill battle in the contest. Cowley tacked on two more in the third to make it 5-0 before the Scotties got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Jason Gonzalez led the inning off with a single and Kenneth Vega followed with a hit and a walk by Justin Rieschick loaded the bases. Victor Sanchez put a groundball in play to bring in Gonzalez the Scotties got on the board but only managed to secure one run. Cowley posted another run in the seventh and the Scotties were unable to get things going in the bottom of the seventh falling 6-1.

Jordan McClellan, Gonzalez and Vega were the only Scotties to notch a hit in the loss, while on the hill Noah McClanahan tossed a strong six innings giving up five runs only two earned on six hits and two walks, with two strikeouts.

Game 2 on Sunday vs Cowley
In the series finale it was early runs by the opponent that set back the Scotties as Cowley plated a run in the first and two in the second before the Scotties were able to breakthrough for themselves. In the bottom of the second the Scotties lead of the inning with a single by Nick Schifftner, which set things in motion to ultimately score Justin Rieschick who reached by a hit by pitch. Cowley had a quick answer with two runs in the third but Highland got one back in the fourth when Schifftner led the inning off with a double and a bunt single by Jason Gonzalez advance him to third and he then scored on a Rieschick groundout making it 5-2. The game moved to an 8-2 game in the seventh when Cowley scored three runs and the Tigers tacked on another in the eighth, while Highland got one more run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by Dalton Burt but fell in the contest 9-3.

Offensively the loss was the best game of the series by Highland finishing with 12 hits led by a 3-4 performance at the plate by Burt. Jackson Rehkow, Schifftner and Sanchez each had a two hit game, also. On the mound five Scotties saw action with Max Milligan working the most tossing four innings giving up three runs on six hits, while striking out four.

Highland continues their season with more KJCCC action on Thursday, April 4^th and Saturday, April 6^th against Coffeyville as the Scotties will play on the road at Coffeyville on Thursday and at home on Saturday in doubleheaders slated for 1:00pm starts.