’Hounds split with division leaders

The ball (upper left) leaves the bounds of Lions Field with great haste off the bat of Fort Scott’s Alexei Cazarin in the bottom of the fourth inning of Thursday’s first game with Cowley. The Greyhounds won the opener over the 10th-ranked Tigers with the aid of three home runs.

Scott Nuzum/Tribune

Fort Scott Community College’s baseball team split with No. 10-ranked Cowley in a Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division doubleheader at Lions Field Thursday.

The Greyhounds won the opener, 5-1, but the Tigers roared back in the nightcap for an 18-5 win.

The split keeps Cowley’s lead over Fort Scott in the division at three games with return matches on the agenda Sunday at 2 p.m. in Arkansas City. The Tigers are 26-4 in the division, 34-9 overall. The ’Hounds are three games behind at 23-7, 37-10.

With six conference games remaining for every team in the division, only the Greyhounds and Tigers can win the division. Johnson County, Kansas City, Coffeyville and Neosho County are all tied for third at 16-14, seven games behind Fort Scott. If the Greyhounds at least split with Cowley on Sunday, they keep their chances of winning a division championship alive. A Tiger sweep would put them five games ahead with three remaining, clinching the title, which would be their 19th in the past 26 years.

Wyatt Folsom (6-1) held Cowley to 5 hits in the opener, walking 2 and striking out 5. The Tigers’ run was unearned.

Owen Wilson hit a 2-out single in the bottom of the first and scored when Cowley’s shortstop misplayed the throw from the outfield on Andrew Morrow’s double. Morrow scored later on a wild pitch. Cole Solomon led off the second with his 10th homer run of the year to make it 3-0. Alexei Cazarin hit a one-out solo homer in the fourth and Morrow led off the fifth with a solo shot, his 16th of the season.

Collin Fraley was 3 for 4 at the plate for the Greyhounds while Morrow was 2 for 3.

Game two was scoreless for the first two innings before the Tigers scored 5 in the top of the third. Fort Scott got a pair in the bottom of the inning on a 2-out, 2-run homer.

Cowley scored 4 in the fourth. Solomon hit a solo homer in the bottom of that inning. The Tigers added another 6 in the fifth to make it 15-3.

Aris Nakagawa walked with one out in Fort Scott’s half of the sixth. Fort Scott High graduate Grant Goldston also walked. Colton Rexroad hit a single to score Nakagawa. Goldston scored on Ben McConnell’s sacrifice fly.

Fraley was 2 for 4 for the Greyhounds at the plate in this game.

NOTES — The Greyhounds are three wins away from 40 on the season, which would make this team only the fourth to win at least 40. The last 40-win season came in 2013, when Fort Scott finished 40-17....

Game One

Fort Scott........... 210 110 x — 5 9 1

WP — Folsom (6-1). LP — Roach (5-2).

HR — Fort Scott: Solomon (9, 2nd inn., none on, none out), Cazarin (3, 4th inn., none on, 1 out), Morrow (16, 5th inn., none on, none out).

Game Two

Fort Scott...... 002 102 0xx — 5 8 4

WP — Hadlock (4-0). LP — Smith (4-1).

HR — Cowley: Rolon (5, 3rd inn., 1 on, none out), Beard (5, 4th inn., 1 on, none out). Fort Scott: Morrow (17, 3rd inn., 1 on, 2 out), Solomon (10, 4th inn, none on, 1 out).