Barton sweeps home series with Pratt, Iowa Western; run win streak to 5

Barton sweeps home series with Pratt, Iowa Western; run win streak to 5
The Barton County Community College baseball team kept its perfect mark at home in tact with sweeps of two series. Barton took a pair of Jayhawk West games from Pratt, winning 2-1 and 11-6 Wednesday, then turned around and grabbed 12-10, 9-5 non conference wins over Iowa Western Thursday as Barton moved to 5-0 at home this season. The Cougars are now 3-1 in the West and 11-7. Barton is currently riding a 5-game winning streak.

Highlights
The sweep of Pratt put the Cougars near the top of the Jayhawk West standings in the early portion of the schedule. Barton won the pitcher's duel in the opener as Ronnie Morales and Logan Smith out-dueled Brendan Wise for the Beavers to give Barton the win. Morales battled through the 1st 2 innings, allowing 3 hits, walking 3 and hitting a batter. But through it all, Morales only gave up 1 run as the Beavers left the bases loaded both innings. After that, Morales found hit groove.

Morales retired 9 straight batters straight batters at one point and allowed just 3 more base runners through the 6th inning, keeping the Cougars within 1 run of the lead. The good pitching paid dividend in the bottom of the 6th as Barton scored twice to grab the lead. Brent Biggs and Andrew Giambrone led off the inning with back-to-back singles and would both eventually score. Biggs scored on an Andrew Small sacrifice fly and Giambrone on a Chris Evans 2-out double. Smith came in to finish a great effort by Morales by, retiring the Beavers without a run in the 7th to pick up the save. Morales improved to 3-1 with the win, lowering his ERA to 3.05. Smith picked up his 2nd save.

The 2nd game had a little more run production as Barton built a big lead then held off the Beavers. Barton scored 8 runs in the 1st 3 innings to grab an 8-4 lead on Pratt. Small had 4 RBI as Barton built that lead, including a 2-run double in the 2nd. Pratt cut the lead to 8-6 with 2 runs in the top of the 6th but the Cougars responded with 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the 6th. Evans' had another 2-run double in the inning, giving him 4 RBI for the game.

The sweep of Iowa Western – especially the opener – was an emotional roller-coaster for the Cougars. Barton built a huge lead in the 14-12 win, only to see it disappear, then win the game in the most dramatic of fashions. The Cougars scored 6 runs in the 1st inning as Michael Stettinger blasted a 3-run homer. Barton's lead grew to 11-2 in the bottom of the 4th when Troy Morgan hit his 1st homer as a Cougar – a 3-run shot. But that entire lead disappeared in the top of the 5th as Barton went through 4 pitchers in an effort to stop what would turn out to be a 10-run inning for Iowa Western for a 12-11 lead.

Barton did not panic as the Cougars evened the score at 12-all when Stettinger, a Great Bend High product, drove in Tino McFerran with a single in the bottom of the 5th. The Cougars then won the game in the bottom of the 7th as McFerran played hero with a walk-off 2-run homer.

The 2nd game wasn't quite as dramatic as the Cougars scored 5 times in the bottom of the 5th to turn a 4-all tie into a 9-4 lead on the way to the 9-5 victory. Another Stettinger homer – a 2-run blast – gave the Cougars the lead in the 5th. Erik Whinery added a solo shot while Brent Biggs and Andrew Giambrone both drove in runs with doubles as the Cougars secured the win for pitcher Chad Lee.

Results
Box scores from all the games can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Sat., March 19 – at Garden City, 1 pm (Jayhawk West doubleheader at Williams Field)