Cowley softball team wraps up dominant home slate

The No. 9-ranked Cowley College softball team swept its final home doubleheader of the regular season with wins of 8-3 and 6-4 over Hesston College on Sunday. With the wins, the Lady Tigers finish with a record of 21-2 at home.

Cowley's 12 sophomores were honored in between games.

"Finishing up at home with a 21-2 record for these sophomores is incredible and as a coach I am so thankful for those moments with them," Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said.

After splitting a doubleheader at Hesston earlier in the season, Cowley rallied from early deficits in each game on Sunday to improve its record to 31-13 overall and 19-7 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division.

"We needed to capture both wins against Hesston as last time playing them we gave them a game," Hoyt said. "Just having that in the back of our minds we knew we wanted to take both games on Sunday."

Hesston is now 19-17 overall and 11-13 in the Jayhawk East.

After giving up three runs in the top of the first inning, Cowley College sophomore Brooke Mason (14-6) held Hesston scoreless the rest of the way as Cowley rallied for the 8-3 win of game one.

Freshman Cierah Jones broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning.

Sophomore Elizabeth Luttrell had two hits and drove in a pair of runs, while sophomore Dezmen Duncan added two hits with an RBI.

Luttrell continued to swing a hot bat in game two as she drove in Cowley's first run on a sacrifice fly. Sophomore Paige Hughes' two-run triple in the bottom of the second inning gave the Lady Tigers a 3-1 lead. Sophomore Micah North drove in a run for the second straight game to increase Cowley's lead to 4-2 heading into the sixth inning.

The Larks' Jessie Miranda hit a two-run double off Cowley starting pitcher Ashlynn Mercer to tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth inning. However, Cowley answered back with an RBI double by Hughes and a run-scoring single by Duncan to go back in front 6-4.

Mercer struck out Hesston's Terri Stanton with a runner at first to end the game. Mercer is now 14-4 on the season.

Cowley will play its final six games on the road, starting with a doubleheader at Butler Monday beginning at 4 p.m. The Lady Grizzlies (41-2) have won 37 games in a row and are ranked No. 3 in the NJCAA Division I softball poll.

"We still have work to do on the road and end this season on what we set out to accomplish," Hoyt said.

Score by inning:

Game one                       R H E

Hesston 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 3 10 1

Cowley   2 1 2 0 3 0 x – 8 9 0

Game two                      R H E

Hesston 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 – 4 7 3

Cowley   1 2 0 0 1 2 x – 6 5 0