Cougars win 3 of 4 West games; make push for 2nd

Cougars win 3 of 4 West games; make push for 2nd
The Barton County Community College baseball team is making a push for 2nd place in the Jayhawk West, taking 3 of 4 home games in two days. The Cougars made up a couple of rainouts Thursday and Friday at Cougars Fields, sweeping Pratt and splitting with Seward County. The split with Seward gave the Saints just their 2nd conference loss of the season. Barton also split with Brown Mackie Monday.

Barton is now 24-14 overall and 12-6 in the Jayhawk West. The Cougars are still in 3rd place in the conference, but could overtake Hutchinson in a twinbill today. Seward leads the West with a 21-3 mark while Hutch is 18-6. No other team is over .500 in the West.

Highlights
Barton won a pair of 1-run games against Pratt, rallying in the opener for the win and holding off the Beavers in the nightcap for the victory. Barton won the opener 5-4 and second game 4-3.

The Cougars fell behind 3-0 in the opener but a big 5th inning gave the Cougars their first lead of the game. Michael Roberts gave the Cougars a 4-3 lead with a double scoring Josh Schaub, who had earlier driven in a run with a single. The Beavers tied the game in the 6th before the Cougars put the game away in their last at bat. Schaub singled and moved to 2nd on a wild pitch. He later scored on a 1-out single by Roberts for the win. Roberts ended the game with 3 hits and the 2 RBI. AJ Knight picked up the win, going the distance for the Beavers.

Barton made it a sweep of Pratt by holding off the Beavers in the finale. The Cougars built a 4-0 in the game heading into the final inning. Chris Klick had shutout the Beavers on just 1 hit heading into the inning before running into some trouble. Brendon Bump came on and eventually got the save for the Cougars in the win. T.J. Liles had 3 hits for the Cougars while Jeff Christy drove in 2 runs.

Barton opened Friday against the No. 6 ranked Saints of Seward County with another 1-run win, that again went to the final at bat. The two teams traded the lead during the opener with Barton 4 times in the 5th for a 6-2 lead. Roberts belted a 2-run triple to highlight the inning. But Seward would answer with 4 runs of its own in the 6th to even the score at 6-all. The Cougars won the contest in their last at bat with Patrick Wallis playing the role of hero. Liles had singled to start the inning and scored on a Wallis triple for the 7-6 win. Andrew Burdine picked up the win for the Cougars, going the distance on the mound on the windy day. Wallis had 3 hits and Roberts drove in 3 for the Cougars in the win.

Barton's streak of 1-run wins came to end in the second game against the Saints. A 7-run 4th by the Saints gave the Cougars too big of a mountain to climb. The Cougars did whittle the margin to 10-5 with 4 runs in the 5th, but it wasn't enough.

Monday night Barton split non conference games with Brown Mackie, winning 10-3 and losing 6-4.

Next
April 22 -- at Hutchinson, 3 pm
April 23-- vs. Dodge City, 5 pm

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