Barton sweeps past Butler into 1st place in Jayhawk West

Barton sweeps past Butler into 1st place in Jayhawk West
The Barton County Community College baseball team has returned from Spring Break in Texas hotter than any weather saw deep in the heart of the South. Since the Cougars returned from a 1-5 trip to Texas, Barton has won 7 of 8 games in Jayhawk West play to take the top spot in the conference. Barton made it 4 straight wins and 6 in a row at home Monday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep of Butler County. The Cougars won both game in heart-stopping fashion, holding on for a 5-4 win the opening game the rallying for 2-1 win with 2 outs in the 8th in the nightcap. Barton is now 10-4 in West play and 19-13 overall. Butler fell to 5-9 and 18-11. Barton will be on the road Wednesday as the Cougars reach the halfway mark of the conference season with a doubleheader in Liberal against Seward County. Seward is currently tied for 3rd in the West at 9-7. The Saints are 21-16 overall.

Highlights
It was a day when nearly everyone contributed to the win from the top of the lineup in a 3-run 1st inning to start the day to the bottom of the lineup where Tim Ruble drove in the winning run in the last at-bat from his No. 9 spot for the 2nd time in just more than a week. It was also a day in which Barton received two great starting efforts on the mound.

In the opener, Barton bolted to the 3-0 lead as Wade Gubbels, David Wilson, and Eric Whinery all collected 2-out hits to give the Cougars the 3-0 advantage. Barton made it 5-0 in the 4th as Ruble drove in Whinery and Austin Holt singled in Tyler Metcalf. While Barton was making it a 5-0 game, Brock Nehls was cruising on the mound. Nehls allowed just 3 hits through the 1st 5 innings as Barton built its lead. The righty did run into some trouble in the 6th inning, giving up 3 runs – all unearned – on a pair of hits and 2 errors.

Barton had to hold off the Butler in the final inning as the Cougars' closer ran into some trouble. Nathan Hedrick took the mound for the final inning of work and was greeted by back-to-back singles by the Grizzlies. Hedrick settled down and allowed only one more walk in the inning but the Grizzlies did add another run and have 2 runners on base before the Cougars got out of the inning and earn the win. Nehls improved to 4-1 on the year and lowered his ERA to 1.97. Hedrick collected his 6th save of the season in the win.

The Cougars received another stellar start in the nightcap as Logan Smith worked 7 strong innings of 1-run baseball before giving way to Hedrick in the 8th, where the Cougars won the game. Butler County also had a strong pitching performance of its own as Brandon Johnson locked horns with Smith.

Smith gave up just 5 hits in his 7 innings of work, running into trouble only a couple of innings. The lone run he surrendered was in the 4th where a walk and 2 hits allowed Butler to score its only run of the game with 2 outs in the inning. Barton evened the contest an inning later thanks to a Butler error. With two outs and Holt on 1st, the speedy outfielder stole 2nd then scored on a tough hop grounder by Ty Stivers that got by the Butler 1st baseman and scored Holt.

The game stayed tied through 7 and went into extra innings. Hedrick again made his way to the mound for Barton this time the 6-10 closer allowed just one walk and he shut down the Grizzlies, setting the stage for the 2nd Ruble heroics in just more than a week. With one out in the inning, Tyler Rzepka hit a grounder to short that was bobbled and thrown over the head of the 1st baseman. Rzepka slide into 2nd base on the play, just ahead of the Grizzlies tag. Following a line drive out 2nd base, Anthony Dreiling singled to deep short, moving Brandon Wells, pinch-running for Rzepka, to 3rd and bringing Ruble to the plate. And just like 8 days earlier against Colby in the bottom of the 7th inning, Ruble came through with the game-winner for Barton. His single to right scored Wells and gave Barton its 7th win in 8 West games since returning from Texas.

Barton has won 10 of 12 in the West since starting the year out with a doubleheader loss at Cloud.

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

Next
Wed., April 5 – at Seward County, 3 pm (West doubleheader at Liberal)