Barton’s season ends at Allen County

Barton's season ends at Allen County
The Barton County Community College baseball team saw its season come to an end this past weekend at Iola, as the Cougars dropped 2 of 3 games in the best-of-3 series to Allen County to open Region VI play. Barton won the 1st game with a big 11th inning by 16-8 margin, then dropped the next two contests, 8-2 and 11-1, to see its season come to an end at 28-25. The Region VI double elimination portion of the tournament will continue this weekend at Wichita.

Highlights
In the opener the Cougars exploded for 8 runs in the 11th inning to escape with the win. A Mike Stettinger homer gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead in the 4th inning but Highland plated 4 runs – 3 unearned – in the 5th retake the lead. The Cougars evened the mark at 5-all in the 7th when Andrew Small belted a 3-run homer scoring Andrew Giambrone and Brent Biggs. Barton took the lead in the 8th when Giambrone matched Small's effort with a 3-run homer of his own scoring Eric Whinery and Jordan Bruns. The lead wouldn't last for the Cougars as miscues allowed 3 more unearned runs for the Red Devils in the bottom of the 8th to even the score at 8-all. That is where it would stand for three more innings until the Cougars bats exploded.

Right from the start the 11th inning looked like the makings of a big inning. Biggs and Small started the inning with back-to-back doubles to give the Cougars a 9-8 lead. That opened the floodgates up. Wade Gubbels and Stettinger then both reached base before Robbie Adams bunted them to 2nd and 3rd. Following a Whinery walked Bruns drove in Gubbels for a 10-8 advantage. After a Matt Coatman strikeout, Giambrone drove in 2 more with a single and Small capped the inning off a batter later with a bases loaded double that scored Bruns, Giambrone, and Biggs for a 2nd time in the inning as Barton put the game away. Nate Smith picked up the win in relief, pitching 3 scoreless, hitless innings. The Cougars pounded out a season-high 20 hits led by Small and Whinery with 4 each. Small drove in a career-high 7 runs in the contest and Giambrone added a career-high 5 RBI as well.

Barton wouldn't hit the ball like it did in the opener the rest of the weekend. The Cougars could only muster 2 runs in the nightcap Saturday, evening the series at 1-1 all and sending it into Sunday to be decided. The only runs Barton produced in game 2 came in the top of the 5th when the Cougars took a 2-0 lead on back-to-back 2-out home runs by Bruns and Whinery. Allen County broke a 2-all tie in the 7th with a 6-run inning that proved to be the final score of 8-2. The After getting 20 hits in the opener, Barton collected just 7 in the nightcap with Small and Giambrone continuing to the ball well with 2 hits each.

Sunday the bats were even more silent as the Cougars as they produced only an Eric Whinery home run during the contest. That homer came in the top of the 2nd to make the game 2-1 in favor of Allen County but the Red Devils quickly increased that lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the 2nd. Barton would never threaten as the Cougars collected just 2 hits the entire game – a Biggs single in the 1st and the Whinery homer in the 2nd.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu

Next
Season complete with a 28-25 record.