Indians can't hold lead in late loss to No. 5 Cowley

Indians can't hold lead in late loss to No. 5 Cowley

ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. The McCook Community College baseball team led the No. 5 team in the nation for seven innings Saturday but the Cowley College Tigers came back for an 11-7 win in the first game of a three-game series.

"We put ourselves in position to win, up 7-6 in the bottom of the eight, but we just didn't make enough plays to put it away," said MCC Coach Jon Olsen.

After a leadoff single in the bottom of the eight, Cowley's Blaze Brothers stroked a two-run home run to give the Tigers an 8-7 lead, and an MCC error led to a pair of unearned runs.

"They put a good swing on a ball in the bottom of the eight for the go-ahead run," Olsen said. "We didn't play as clean of a game defensively as we could have."

The Indians were charged with four errors on the day.

Braden Babcock (sophomore Oshawa, Ontario) started the game for MCC and allowed four earned runs and eight hits in five innings of work, walking two and striking out six.

Trailing 3-0 in the third, MCC took the lead with four runs including an RBI single by Pedro Perez (sophomore Cidra, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy) and a two-out, three-run home run by Kade Wroot (sophomore, North Platte).

Cowley responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third and made it a 6-4 game adding a run in the fourth.

MCC tallied a run in the fifth inning and, tied the game in the seventh on an RBI-single from Ricardo Hernandez (freshman, Ponce, Puerto Rico/Carlos Beltran Academy) and took a 7-6 lead with an RBI-single off the bat of Caleb Eiguren (freshman, Westminster, Colo.).

"I thought offensively we put a few competitive at bats together and did some good things, we just have to take the next step to put the game away against a good team when we are in position to and that will take a team effort," Olsen said.

The Indians had eight hits in the game including three by Wroot.

Mitchell Driver (freshman, Sydney, Australia) went two innings in relief and was charged with a pair of earned runs, allowing two hits, two walks and striking out three. Troy Shepherd (freshman, McDowell, N.C.) pitched the final inning and was charged with three unearned runs on two hits, a walk and two strikeouts.

"We have a big day in front of us tomorrow to play again, that's the nice thing about baseball -- a lot of times you get to get right back out there," Olsen said.

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