The Allen Community College softball team continued padding its resume for the upcoming postseason tournament seeding after upsetting the top team in the Jayhawk Conference Thursday.
Hot off knocking off the No. 1 Neosho Panthers, the Red Devils added another No. 1 team to their mantle while splitting Thursday’s doubleheader in Cowley County with the Cowley Tigers taking the opener 7-1 and Allen taking the finale 5-4.
Freshman pitcher Kirstyn Busby picked up the win in the finale, but sophomore Camrynn Yardley came in for the save with all but two outs of her 2 2/3 innings pitched coming from her team-leading six strikeouts.
Yardley took the loss in the opener, tallying five strikeouts over six innings but allowed five runs in the later innings. The Red Devils got on the scoreboard with a seventh-inning RBI from freshman pinch-hitter Taryn Billings, but it was not enough to get them back into contention as by that point Cowley already had a 7-0 advantage. 
Billings, sophomore outfielder Kennedy Mead and sophomore outfielder Kaylee Spreer accounted for Allen’s three hits. Mead and Spreer hit in 1 of 3 appearances.
The Red Devils significantly improved in the finale.
Billings put the Red Devils on the scoreboard with a sacrifice fly ball. Allen added to its lead with an RBI single from sophomore second baseman Paxton Meyer, then, after missing significant time with an injury, freshman outfielder Ella McCammon made a triumphant return with an RBI double.
The Tigers tied the game with a pair of two-run innings in the third and the fifth, but a McCammon blooper to right field gave the Red Devils the lead heading into Cowley’s final at-bat. Yardley registered a trio of strikeouts to shut down Cowley and defeat Allen’s second nationally ranked opponent in as many weeks.
McCammon and Meyer ended the day with two RBIs each.
Following Thursday’s doubleheader, the Red Devils sit seventh in the Jayhawk Conference standings at 8-10 and 20-23 overall. They have another opportunity to knock off another nationally ranked opponent when they host Johnson County Community College (26-16, 13-5) Saturday. First pitches for Saturday’s doubleheader are 1 and 3 p.m.
