Barton hands Hutch first West loss; splits twinbill

Barton hands Hutch first West loss; splits twinbill
The Barton County Community College baseball team handed Hutchinson its first Jayhawk West loss of the season Monday afternoon, defeating Hutchinson 2-1 in the nightcap at Cougar Fields in Great Bend. Hutchinson won the opener 6-3.

The split gives Barton County a 13-11 overall mark and 4-4 record in West play. Hutch is now 19-9 and 11-1.

Highlights
Some costly mistakes kept the Cougars from winning the opener as Hutchinson plated 4 unearned runs in the contest. The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd as Travis Oosthoek benefited from a pair of Hutch mistakes to score an unearned run himself. The Blue Dragons took a 3-0 lead in the 3rd with unearned runs and pushed the margin to 5-1 in the 5th -- the only earned runs on the game for the Blue Dragons.

Barton cut the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the inning, when Josh Schaub scored on a balk. Barton missed a chance to trim the lead even further in the 6th, stranding Oosthoek on 2nd after a 1-out double. The Cougars did add another late run, scoring in the 7th on a T.J. Liles single.

Schaub was 3-for-4 in the contest for Barton and Oosthoek was 2-for-3. Andrew Burdine was the tough luck loser, giving up just 7 hits and 6 runs over his 7 innings of work.

The Cougars never trailed in the nightcap, but took the game to the final stages for the win. Barton took a 1-0 lead in the 1st. Schaub starting the inning off with a double, followed by a walk to Jackson and an RBI single from Christy.

Freshman left-hander A.J. Knight made that lead stand for 5 innings before giving up his first and only run of the game in the top of the 6th. A 2-out single and wild pitch by Knight allowed the Blue Dragons to tie the score at 1-all.

But the Cougars responded immediately. Jackson walked to leadoff the Cougars half of the 6th and moved to 3rd later in the inning when a pickoff throw went array. After an intention walk to Roberts, Liles drove in his 20th run of the season with a fly ball to center field, scoring Jackson. His 20 RBI ties him with Jackson for the team lead. Jackson's run was his team-leading 38th of the season.

Knight made the 1-run lead stand in the top of the 7th, retiring the first two batters before yielding a single. But Knight notched his 6th strike out to end the game and improve to 2-1 this season. His only loss was at league-leading Seward County.

Stats
Stats can be found on the Barton County website at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Wednesday, April 2 -- Barton v. Butler, 3 pm, at Cougar Fields in Great Bend