By John Mesh
The Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragon baseball team lost to the Cowley College Tigers 2-1 in the first round of the Region 6 Plains District tournament Tuesday at Dean Evans Stadium in Salina.
Cowley (45-10) will play Coffeyville (36-18) in the second round. Hutchinson (39-20) will play Barton Community College (42-12) in a 1 p.m. elimination game on Wednesday.
In a first-round game, Barton lost to Coffeyville 11-2 in seven innings.
Lachlan Rosser got the start on the pitcher’s mound for the Hutchinson Blue Dragons.
Hutchinson took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Anthony Mazza tripled off the left field wall and scored on A.J. Mustow’s groundout to the first baseman. In the bottom of the third, Rosser pitched a 1-2-3 inning.
Cowley got their first two hits of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Rosser stranded runners on first base and third base.
The Cowley Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, but Rosser got off the hook with a fly ball to right field and a ground out to the shortstop.
Hutchinson’s Quinn Maher led off the top of the sixth inning with a double to left center field but was stranded.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Cowley doubled. However, the Tigers’ baserunner was thrown out on a Leo Griffin-to-Cael Hamrick-to-Mazza relay play. Mustow made a long running catch to end the threat.
After the Blue Dragons went down in order in the top of the seventh inning, Rosser and the Blue Dragons survived a leadoff walk. Rosser got a strikeout to end the inning with a runner on third base.
Maher drew a two-out walk for the Blue Dragons in the top of the eighth inning but Hutchinson did not score any runs.
The Tigers broke through with two runs on two hits in the bottom of the eight inning to take a 2-1 lead.
In other Plains District games Tuesday, Kansas City Kansas defeated Cloud County 8-5 and Johnson County defeated Fort Scott 13-0 (5 innings).
Cloud County plays Fort Scott at 10 a.m. in an elimination game. Johnson County plays KCK at 4 p.m. in a winner’s bracket game.
Blue Dragon golfers tied for 3rd after Round 1 at NJCAA Division I Tournament
The Hutchinson Blue Dragon men’s golf team completed Round 1 of the NJCAA Division I golf tournament Monday with a 3-under team score of 285, which is tied for second place (one stroke off the lead) midway through the opening round.
The tournament is being played at Sand Creek Station in Newton.
Hutchinson’s Corey Scullion and Charlie Box are tied for fifth place after the first round with 70s. Tyler Walker is 12th with a 71, followed by Louis Ross in 75th place with a 74 and Jack Northgraves 102nd with a 76.
The second round will be played Wednesday, the third round on Thursday and the final round on Friday.
Monday night at the NJCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship banquet, Box became just the fourth Hutchinson Community College men’s golfer to earn PING All-America honors in back-to-back seasons.
Box was named a PING first-team NJCAA Division I Men’s Golf All-American.
Let’s go Dragon golfers!