The Neosho County baseball team faced its first adversity of the season against the Cowley Tigers at Hudson Field, and the Panthers struggled to handle it.
Cowley took the four-game series, three games to one with a 10-3 and
16-5 sweep on Friday afternoon.
In game one, it was tied at one going into the fourth inning when a leadoff walk came around to score, sparking a five-run frame for the visiting Tigers.
"We got exposed. Our pitching – we didn't lead off with many first pitch strikes. We got behind a lot of hitters, and we got absolutely shelled for the most part, all weekend long," Coach Steve Murry said. "I feel like we've thrown good enough to beat some teams all year long, but to beat a top-tier team like Cowley, you've got to get better. I think our kids saw that."
Cowley added three more in the fifth, while the Panthers benefited from a balk call in the sixth to bring in a run and a home run from sophomore Aaron Meers to close out game one.
Offensively, the Panthers mustered only five hits in the loss, while freshman Joe Todd was tagged with the loss. He struck out and walked four and gave up six earned runs in four innings of work.
Game two, the Tigers did most of their damage in the early innings.
Neosho County spotted Cowley an 8-0 lead before freshman Adam Theis got the Panthers on the scoreboard with a two-run home run.
Things continued to go south as Cowley added four more in the third and three more in the fourth to take a 15-2 advantage.
"The other day in our loss to them, we were 0 for 17 in throwing curve balls for strikes and 1 for 18 in throwing a change up for strikes,"
Murry explained. "If you are sitting there waiting for a fastball, it is batting practice.
"We have to learn how to throw our secondary pitches for strikes and putting them on the defensive instead of putting them in hitter's counts, 2-0, 3-1. We didn't do that this weekend. We were bad at it this weekend."
The Panthers got two RBIs from freshman shortstop Cruz Aranda and a solo home run from Hunter LaMunyon in the late innings.
Aranda, Theis, Brady Garrison and Meers tallied two hits apiece.
Freshman Brandon Anderson was charged with the loss, striking out four while giving up eight earned runs.
"Hopefully, some of the guys learn some lessons from it, and we are better next weekend," Murry said. "On this date, they are better than we are, but our goal is to be better than them come the end of April."
Neosho County will take the rest of the weekend off before returning to the field Tuesday as they travel to Kansas City, Mo. to face Rockhurst University. First pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 6 pm. "This is the most injured team that I've seen at this point in the season in all my years of coaching," Murry said. "That's not an excuse, but it limits us as far as depth. We've got so many little injuries that they need to get well and take care of their body, and we need that depth back to be efficient."