It was a tough day at the office Saturday for Allen Community College’s baseball team.
The Red Devils were unable to do much offensively against visiting Cowley County’s pitching staff. Conversely, the Tigers took advantage of some crucial Allen errors and ill-timed walks to keep their rallies alive, winning 9-2 and 12-2.
The setbacks drop Allen’s record to 9-7 on the season.
“It was one of those weekends where it felt like nothing was going right,” Allen head coach Clint Stoy said. “Even when you felt it was going right,you didn’t get a call here or there, or there was a crucial error here or there. It’s not a good recipe for winning baseball and it showed.”
Cowley erupted for four runs in the fifth after Allen pitcher Patrick Babcock retired the first two batters of the inning. A pair of walks and a hit batter led to back-to-back two-run singles to push the Tigers on top, 6-2. The Tigers tacked on three more in the sixth to seal the deal.
Allen trailed 2-0 when a dropped third strike allowed Nathan Bach to reach first in the bottom of the fourth. He came around to score on a double by Ayden Blachowicz. Kam’rom Mays-Hunt followed with a single to put runners on first and third, and Tanner Strickland’s squeeze bunt evened the score.
But the Red Devils mustered only one other hit, a single by Strickland.
Brett Buchanan, Babcock, Jackson Rains and Dustin Davidson combined to give up 11 hits and nine walks while striking out nine.
Things looked better at the start of the finale.
Josh Prinner and Sean Gomez hit singles around a Cowley error off Bach’s bat to load the bases. Blachowicz drew a walk to force in one run; Kyle Carver was hit by a pitch to make it 2-0.
The Tigers pushed across an unearned run in the third, then took the lead for good with a six-run fourth, aided by a double, a pair of ground-ball singles and a pair of ACC errors.
The floodgates opened after that, with the Tigers tacking on two more in the fifth and three in the sixth.
Allen had one other hit in the contest, a single by Fraai Roangeraud.
Josh Fluet, Ryan Ferger, Jack Neil and Luke Carter gave up a combined 12 hits and four walks, while striking out two.
“We’re gonna learn from this,” Stoy said. “When you’re starting seven freshmen, you’re gonna have growing pains, and that’s what happened to us.”
