Cougars go 3-1 to complete regular season in 3rd

Cougars go 3-1 to complete regular season in 3rd 
The Barton County Community College baseball team completed it regular season over the weekend, winning 3 of 4 of the road to wrap up 3rd place in the Jayhawk West. The Cougars clinched 3rd place Friday with a sweep at Garden City, winning 12-4 and 2-1. Barton split games at Colby Saturday, winning the opener 7-1 and losing in the nightcap 8-3.

Barton completes it regular season with a 32-20 overall mark and a 20-12 West record. The Cougar will start the Western Sub Regional Thursday in El Dorado against Garden City. The Broncbusters finished 6th in the West with a 14-18 record and a 26-26 overall mark.

Highlights
Barton rallied to win the opener late in the contest at Garden City. The Cougars trailed 4-0 heading into the 6th inning against the Broncbusters when their bats awoke. Josh Schaub started the scoring with a 2-run homer to cut the margin in half. Garden followed with an error and two walks of Barton batters to load the bases. Mark Newton made the Broncbusters pay with a 2-run single with 2 outs to even the score at 4-all.

The Cougars then blew the game open in the 7th, scoring 8 more times on 7 hits. That was A.J. Knight to pick up the win, going 6 innings and allowing. Nick Derr came in to finish off the Broncbusters in the 7th.

Things were just as tough in the 2nd game of the twinbill as well despite the fact the Cougars never trailed. Barton took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd when Jeff Christy drove in Steve Elson with a 2-out single. The Cougars made it 2-0 for starter Ryan Wagner in 5th when Elson scored again, this time on a triple by Glenn Jackson. That was enough for Wagner to pick up the win, going 4 2/3innings. Derr earned the save getting out of a 2 on, 2-out jam in the 5th then shutting down Garden in the 6th and 7th.

Barton received a great pitching effort from Andrew Burdine. Burdine allowed just 4 base runners the entire game, giving up just one hit all day - a 4th inning single, which eventually gave Colby its only run. Barton never trailed in the game, taking a 1-0 lead on a Michael Roberts single in the 1st that scored Jackson. The Cougars made it 3-0 in the 4th after Roberts and T.J. Liles led off the inning with singles and scored on RBI by Patrick Wallis and Jerry Cook. Barton scored 3 more times in the 5th and 1 more in the 6th for the 7-1 win.

The Cougars completed their regular season with an 8-3 loss to the Trojans.

Next
May 8 -- Western Sub Regional v Garden City, 4:30 p.m.