Dodge City upends Cowley for national juco baseball berth

The only member of Dodge City’s baseball team with a comparable experience was the only one who seemed taken aback by the routine.

While Conquistadors players were dog-piling on the pitcher’s mound at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium following a 7-1 win over No. 1 Cowley in the Region VI championship game, or dousing him with ice water, coach Phil Stephenson was more hesitant.

“I don’t even know what to say about it,” Stephenson said. “We’ll go home and figure it out. I’m not sure what to do at this point.”

Stephenson was the star of Wichita State’s first College World Series team, in 1982, and has now guided Dodge City to its first World Series berth in his 10th season. The tournament begins May 23 in Grand Junction, Colo.

The Conquistadors (41-18) handed Cowley its fifth loss of the season a night after Cowley forced a winner-take-all game by rallying to beat Dodge City.

There was no comeback on Tuesday, as Dodge City took a 7-0 lead in the fourth inning and saw it protected by ace right-hander Luke Crabb, who celebrated his 21st birthday with a four-hitter.

Crabb threw 144 pitches and was a master of the shutdown inning. He retired 10 straight following Dodge City’s five-run third inning and didn’t surrender a hit after Cory Linn’s RBI single for Cowley in the sixth.

“Of course you want the ball in these situations or you wouldn’t come out and work on it,” Crabb said. “Just working hard every day for the last two years at Dodge City to get ready for this. Yeah, I was ready to get the ball in my hands.”

Dodge City didn’t have a hit in any inning but the third and fourth as Cowley’s third pitcher, Mason McAlister, held the Conquistadors hitless for 5 1/3 innings.

There were more than enough hits when Dodge City needed them, though.

The Conquistadors hit for the cycle in a span of five batters in the third, sending away Cowley starter Justin McGregor with Leno Ramirez’s three-run triple before Josh Williams welcomed Nathan Gieber with a two-run home run on Gieber’s first pitch to make it 5-0.

Ramirez’s triple, which plated Dodge City’s first three runs, was softly hit off the end of his bat, but it snuck just inside the right-field foul line and past the glove of Sam Goodwin, who made a diving attempt to his left.

“I wouldn’t take it any other way,” Ramirez said. “I’d take 100 of those if they score three runs every time. I wouldn’t change that at-bat.”

Dodge City added two runs in the fourth, hardly a safe lead against Cowley, which rallied from a 7-0 deficit to defeat Fort Scott on Monday night.

Crabb held the Tigers down, taking advantage of Cowley’s aggressiveness against his array of low-velocity, high-movement pitches, inducing 11 fly-ball outs. He occasionally found something extra on his fastball, striking out eight.

“I can occasionally reach back and throw pretty hard,” Crabb said. “I just don’t see the point of it whenever my ball can move about a foot – my fastball. I’ve got it in me, I just don’t see the point.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Dodge City upends Cowley for national juco baseball berth."