No. 1 Walters State can’t hold early lead in loss to No. 7 Cowley

GRAND JUNCTION, CO – No. 1 Walters State scored eight runs in the first two innings on Thursday evening against Cowley County Community College in the semifinals of the NJCAA DI JUCO World Series. 

The Senators led by five runs; however, the bats went cold after that as Cowley scored 13 unanswered runs to take the contest, 16-8. 

With the loss, Walters State fell to 60-6 on the season. The Senators will play Central Arizona at 7 p.m. MT on Friday in a win-or-go-home game. The winner will face Cowley in the National Championship on Saturday at 7 p.m. MT. 

"Hats off to Cowley," Walters State coach Dave Shelton said. "They battled and their relief pitchers came in and did a heck of a job on us. I was a little disappointed in our approaches at the plate. You worry about when you get punched in the mouth, how you're going to react. I felt like we lost our composure a little bit. We've got another shot tomorrow playing one of the best teams in the country and if we don't do a better job of keeping our composure, we'll be headed home."

Things started off quickly for the Senators as they scored four in the first innings and four in the second inning. Caleb McNeely led things off in the bottom of the first with a solo home run and Noah Gent followed suit with a three-run bomb to give the Senators a 4-1 lead. 

In the second, the Senators loaded the bases with two outs for Kory Klingenbeck who took a two-strike pitch to right center field for a two-RBI double. Dalton McLain was next up and singled up the middle to score Klingenbeck and Corbin Shaw and made it 8-3.

However, Walters State had just one hit the rest of the way following the McLain single.

"I think we hit a couple home runs early, and I'm not so sure if that's what got us out of our approaches at the plate," Shelton said. "It looked like we got a little big and a little out of control instead of staying with what has worked for us all week. Hopefully, we'll learn from it." 

On the mound, Jake Knapp got the start and threw two innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out two. 

From there, it was a multitude of relievers as Bracken Rice pitched two-thirds of an inning, Landon Slemp was solid in 2.1 innings as he struck out five, Joey Mitchell threw 1.2 innings, Luke Ferguson faced two batters and Ty Cobb got the final out in the top of the seventh. 

After the second inning, Cowley scored two in the third, three in the sixth to tie the game at eight and then eight in the seventh to end the game early.

Now, the Senators must regroup quickly as they take on Central Arizona on Friday night with a chance to make the National Championship and take on Cowley again. 

"We have to be able to flush this," Shelton said. "That's part of this tournament. We have to be able to flush this one and forget about it and understand that we are one of the final three teams left in the country. We just have to come out and play the best we can.

"This will be the first do-or-die game we will play in this tournament. It's going to be interesting to see how we respond. I have a mentally tough group of kids; they have shown that all year. I hope that they can bounce back and show it a couple more times." 

Rob Harvey

Walters State Community College

Sports Information Director

Cell: (423) 779-8880

Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu

Website: www.ws.edu/athletics