Barton splits weekend series; drops to 3rd in West race

Barton splits weekend series; drops to 3rd in West race
The Barton County Community College baseball team put itself in position to challenge for the Jayhawk West title with a sweep of Cloud County Saturday afternoon in Concordia. The Cougars won 12-9 and 15-4. But those hopes were dashed Sunday afternoon when West leader Seward County came to Great Bend and swept the Cougars 11-1 and 14-8, ending their 5-game West winning streak and just about any hope of capturing the West crown. Barton is now 24-16 overall and 12-8 in the West, sitting in 3rd place behind Seward and Hutchinson. The Cougars will travel to Hutchinson (26-18, 15-8) Wednesday in a battle for 2nd place. Seward now has a 5-game lead in the loss column for the West title at 17-3 in the West and 30-12 overall.

Highlights
The Cougars battled for their wins in Concordia Saturday, rallying from a 6-2 deficit in the opener. Barton trailed by that 4-run margin after 2 innings but exploded for 7 runs in the 4th to take the lead. Blake Esfeld got things going with a 2-run homer early in the inning and a Steve Elson 2-run double tied it. Three more runs gave Barton a 9-6 lead. The Cougars would hold on for the 12-9 win as Brian Knipplemeyer picked up the win in relief to improve to 3-0 on the season. AJ Knight picked up his 2nd save, throwing the final 2 innings. In addition to Esfeld's homer, Harrison Harber knocked one out and ended the game with 3 hits and 3 runs scored. Jerry Cook had 2 doubles and drove in 3 runs.

Barton had a little easier time in the 2nd game after falling behind 1-0 in the opening inning. The Cougars scored 12 runs over the next 2 innings and put the game away with a 3-run 5th for the run-rule win. Again Barton's bats were active, collecting 14 hits and Jeff Christy and Harber each had 3 in the contest. The Cougars blasted 5 homers with Christy going deep twice and driving in 4 runs. Harber again homered, as did Andrew Giambrone and Wes Renfro. Harber leads the Cougars with 5 homers, followed by Christy and Renfro with 4. Christy's 30 RBI lead the team. Ronnie Morales earned the win, going the distance to even his mark at 2-2 this season.

The two wins at Concordia moved the Cougars with 3 games of the West leading Seward County and presented Barton with a chance to cut that lead to just 1 game with a sweep of the Saints Sunday in Great Bend. That, however, didn't happen as Seward pushed its lead back to 5 games in the West with an 11-1, 14-8 sweep of Barton. Barton's ace Ryan Phillips had his toughest outing of the season, giving up 10 runs – 6 earned – against the No. 11 ranked Saints. He lost for just the 2nd time and fell to 6-2. Barton collected just 3 hits in the game and didn't score until the bottom of the 5th and final inning when Matt Hafner singled in Harber.

The 2nd game saw Seward County build a 5-0 lead before Barton cut it to 5-4 with a 4-run 3rd inning highlighted by a bases loaded triple by Esfeld. A 5-run 5th inning by the Saints put the Cougars in a hole again as Seward pushed its lead to 11-4. Derek McDaid fell to 5-4 with the loss for Barton.

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

Next
Wed., April 21 – at Hutchinson, 3 pm (West doubleheader at Hobart-Detter Field in Hutchinson)