Top-ranked Cowley heads deep Region VI baseball tourney at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium

Cowley College is the No. 1 NJCAA baseball team in the nation.

Seward County is the No. 1 seed in the Region VI Tournament.

Neither team is putting much stake in either spot.

“Seedings don’t really matter, rankings don’t really matter if we go out and play the way we’re capable of,” said Cowley freshman third baseman Garrett Benge, who leads the NJCAA with a .539 batting average. “Everything else takes care of itself.”

Seward coach Galen McSpadden, in his 34th season, echoed that.

“I think it’ll be an outstanding tournament,” McSpadden said. “And the way it usually goes, there’s some upsets and there are some teams that continue to do what they’ve been doing.”

Region VI, played at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, starts with four games on Friday and finishes Monday or Tuesday with the winner headed to the NJCAA World Series May 23-30 in Grand Junction, Colo.

Seward, the Jayhawk West champion, opens against Coffeyville on Friday at 10 a.m. and is the No. 1 seed because Region VI alternates the top seed between the Western and Eastern divisions.

Cowley, the No. 2 seed and Jayhawk East champion, opens against Butler at 7 p.m. Defending champion Johnson County, ranked fourth in NJCAA, plays Fort Scott at 1 p.m.

The other ranked team in the tournament, No. 18 Neosho, plays Dodge City at 4 p.m.

There’s plenty of star power to go around at Lawrence-Dumont.

Cowley has Benge, who also leads the nation with 96 hits and 90 runs and is committed to Oklahoma State.

Neosho has third baseman Jonah Bride, who is second in the Jayhawk with a .477 batting average and leads the league with 93 RBIs. Johnson first baseman Anthony Miller leads the nation with 26 home runs and is third in the Jayhawk with a .460 average.

“I always want to go out and play better than I did the last game, but in this game that can’t always be the case,” Benge said. “I always love the energy that comes from the game. We’ve been on a little bit of a break (before the tournament), but our routine hasn’t changed and our approach to gameday won’t change.”

Seward has a returning All-American in catcher Brent Williams, who has signed with Oral Roberts and leads the Saints with a .402 batting average, 55 RBIs, 80 hits, 11 home runs and 19 doubles.

Williams redshirted at Oklahoma State in 2013, transferred to Seward and after last year’s breakout season he decided to stay and develop for another year when he could’ve gone and played Division I.

“Brent is just an outstanding, class individual,” McSpadden said. “We are so grateful to have him in our program. To think that he almost gave up on baseball a couple of years ago and to see where he’s at now is amazing.”

Seward’s top two pitchers are both headed to the Big 12 – right-hander J.B. Olson (9-4, 3.18 ERA) is signed with Oklahoma and will start against Coffeyville. Left-hander Hayden Howard (7-2, 2.79 ERA) is signed with Texas Tech. Howard played at Seward in 2013, redshirted at Texas A&M last season and came back to Seward this season.

Cowley last made it to the World Series in 2009. Seward’s last trip was in 2011.

This story was originally published May 6, 2015 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Top-ranked Cowley heads deep Region VI baseball tourney at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium."