Allen Community College’s softball team gave the hometown fans reasons to cheer Saturday, in the team’s first games ever on its new turf infield.
Alas, a pair of bugaboos spoiled the Red Devils’ home-opener.
Cowley’s Kayla McLelland hit a three-run home run in the opener as part of a four-run fifth inning to propel the Tigers to a 5-2 win.
Cowley kept up the momentum, racing to an 11-0 victory.
The Red Devils (5-26) are back in action Tuesday, again at home against Neosho County. 
Up until Saturday, Allen was forced to find alternative home sites until the new turf project was finished.
“The field is a nice new addition, for sure,” Red Devil head coach Nicole Peters said. “It’s like Coach (Clint) Stoy said for baseball, we kind of became road warriors. The girls are excited to finally stay home and be able to practice and play on their home field. Maybe that will help us in the next couple of games.”
It seemed to help in the opener, with Allen holding a 1-0 lead for much of the contest, courtesy of a second inning rally in which Andrea Wilson singled, moved to second on a hit by Hailee Lundine and came around to score on Kinsey Stuewe’s base hit.
But the Red Devils missed out on other scoring opportunities.
The second inning ended when Cowley third baseman Teufel snared Trista Argrabright’s line drive down the line, turning into a double play when she beat Lundine back to the bag for the force out.
Cowley knotted the score against Wilson in the top of the fourth on a Red Devil fielding error, and wiggled off the hook when Allen loaded the bases with two outs. Cowley left fielder Paige Hughes’ diving catch robbed Alyana Brown of at least one RBI to end the rally with the bases loaded.
Cowley broke the tie with an RBI single in the top of the fifth, and had two runners on when McLelland deposited a 3-1 pitch over the center field fence for a 5-1 advantage.
“”That one bad pitch hurt us,” Peters said. “But we just have to score some runs.”
Brown walked and scored on a Tiger error with two outs in the bottom of the seven for Allen’s final run.
Allen put on a few highlight reel plays of its own. Brown banged into the center field fence to rob a Cowley player of extra bases, and Stuewe’s backhanded catch of Dezmen Duncan’s drive down the first base line in the third helped Wilson strand Tiger runners at second and third.
