Barton drops West finales to Garden; sweep Northern Oklahoma-Enid

Barton drops West finales to Garden; sweep Northern Oklahoma-Enid
The Barton County Community College baseball team rebounded from a double header loss to Garden City Saturday in the Jayhawk West season finale for a sweep of Northern Oklahoma-Enid Sunday afternoon at Lawson Field. The Cougars swept Enid 10-6 and 13-10 after falling to Garden City 8-0 and 18-5. Barton finished as the runner-up in the Jayhawk West and will take that No. 2 seed into the Region VI playoffs this weekend with a best 2-of-3 series against Independence at Lawson Field. The Cougars concluded the West with a 21-11 record and are now 32-20 overall this season. The lone contest left in the regular season is a single game with Cowley at Lawson Field Tuesday evening, starting at 6 pm.

Highlights
Barton's bats woke up Sunday after taking much of Saturday off. The Cougars scored 23 runs in the sweep of Enid, breaking loose in the 4th inning to come back and defeat the Jets. Barton trailed 6-2 in the opener heading into the bottom half of the 4th when the Cougars exploded for 5 runs in the lead. Tim Ruble started it off with a triple to center field and by the time the inning ended, Barton had 5 hits and scored a pair of runs on wild pitches from the Jets pitching staff. Barton added 3 more in the 5th for the 10-6 win. Tyler Metcalf drove in 4 runs in the win, going 3-for-3 at the plate.

In the 2nd game, the Cougars jumped ahead early but had to hold on for the win over the Jets. Tyler Rzepka had a huge came for the Cougars, hitting a grand slam homer in the 1st to give the Cougars the 6-0 lead. Barton added 5 more runs in the 3rd inning to break a 6-all tie, highlighted by a 2-run homer by Rzepka. That was more than enough cushion for Michael Bell, who came out of the bullpen to pick up his 1st win of the season. Bell shutout the Jets during his first 3 innings of work before running into some trouble in the 7th inning. Nathan Hedrick replaced him to pick up his 9th save of the season.

In the losses Saturday against Garden City, the Cougars didn't score for the 1st 10 innings of action. That lack of hitting resulted in an 8-0 loss in the opener and falling behind 14-0 in the 2nd game before platting a run. In the opener, Barton ran up against one of the top pitchers in the Jayhawk as Aaron Breit mowed through the Cougars, allowing just 2 hits – 1 a bunt single – and striking out 12 in the contest. Breit walked 1 hitter and faced just 2 over the minimum as he improved to 7-4 for the year.

After falling behind 14-0 in the nightcap, Barton's bats showed some signs of life with 2 runs in the 4th and 3 in the 5th, but it was too little, too late to salvage the day. Metcalf and Brent Biggs each drove in 2 runs while Austin Holt and David Wilson each had 2 hits.

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

Next
Tues, April 25 – v Cowley, 6 pm (Non conference single game at Lawson Field in Great Bend)