On way to second win

Cowan had both of his hits and all three of his RBIs in CHS's first-at.

Collins and Ludwig both slugged two-run singles in the first inning. Ludwig added a sacrifice fly in the fourth and finished with three RBIs.

Jason Carlock and Brandon Verley each had two hits.

Carlock scored three runs and knocked in one, and Verley drove in a run with CHS's only extrabase hit: a double in the third.

David Giron chipped in with a run-scoring single and scored twice, as did Dayne Combelic.

"We hit the ball pretty well and did a good job of running the bases," said Bruins Coach Larry McCutcheon.

The Bruins hammered out six of their 11 hits in the first inning in support of starting pitcher Jon Bryan.

Bryan allowed two hits, walked three and struck out five in three innings, raising his record to 2-0.

The right-hander opposed 16 batters overall and worked out of bases-loaded jams in back-to-back frames: the second, with nobody out, and the third, with one away.

All told, he stranded seven runners (four in scoring position), three of whom reached on CHS errors.

Verley finished up, striking out four of the six batters he faced in two innings of scorless relief.

"Compared to our first game, our pitching wasn't as sharp," McCutcheon said. "We didn't pitch badly, but we didn't have the command of our pitches the way we did against Wahtonka."

He attributed that, in part, to going eight days between games.

"It's not the way you'd like to start the season -- if I had my druthers, we'd be playing three times a week -- but that's how the games are scheduled, and that's the order in which we have to play them," McCutcheon said.

After playing Woodland here this Thursday, Columbia is slated to go to La Center on Friday to make up a rain-out game.

The Bruins then host the Wahtonka Eagles on Monday before starting spring break.