Cougars take 3 of 4 against Pratt; tied for 2nd in West at 11-5

Cougars take 3 of 4 against Pratt; tied for 2nd in West at 11-5
The Barton County Community College baseball team stayed in the hunt for the Jayhawk West title, taking 3 of 4 from Pratt over the weekend at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend. The Cougars swept 2 Saturday, winning 3-2 and 12-4 then split the games on Sunday to conclude the conference series, winning 6-0 and losing 2-1 in 8 innings. The Cougars are now 16-11 overall and 11-5 in West play, tied with Hutchinson for 2nd. Seward leads the West at 9-3. The Cougars will travel to Liberal this weekend to take on the West-leading Saints in a 4-game series Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm.

Highlights
Barton once again had great pitching and defense over the weekend, allowing just 8 runs in the 4 games. But like previous West losses, the bats struggled in games preventing the Cougars from the sweep and a tie for the West lead.

Barton rallied to win the opener, trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning. The Cougars scored twice in the inning on just 1 hit and 1 big Pratt error to win the contest. Barton tied the game on an RBI single by Kenny Burkhead to score Bryce Scott who had reached on an error. A Clayton Karst sacrifice scored Marc Albers, who had walked to reach base, for the winning run. Cole Armitage picked up the win for the Cougars in relief, throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Ryan Romo went 5 1/3 allowing the 2 runs, striking out 8. The Cougars collected just 4 hits in the win – 2 by Burkhead – compared to 9 for the Beavers.

Barton banged the ball around in the 2nd game of the Saturday twinbill, garnering 11 hits and scoring 12 times. The Cougars scored in all 6 innings they came to the plate. The contest see-sawed for the 1st 4 innings but Barton scored 4 times in the 5th to turn a 6-4 lead into a 10-4 lead. Kent Urban hit a 2-run homer in the win and drove in 4. He also scored 3 times in the win. Brett Schwartz had 3 hits for Barton while Karst drove in 2. Matt Robertson pitched the 1st 4 innings for the Cougars to pick up the win with Andrew Herrera throwing the final 3 for the save. Robertson is now 4-1 on the season.

Barton received a gem on the mound from Austin Anderson to start things off Sunday, tossing a 2-hitter over 7 innings for the complete game win. Anderson struck out 6 and walked just 1, taking a no-hitter into the 5th inning when he allowed both hits. He improved to 4-1 on the season with an ERA of 2.14. Barton took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd when Burkhead singled in Scott then blew the game open in the 5th win 5 runs. Burkhead singled in 2 as did Andrew Melanson in the inning.

In the final game of the series, the Baron bats went silent again, collecting just 5 hits in 8 innings. The lone run of the contest for Barton tied the game in the bottom of the 5th when Scott drove in Kensley Dukes. Blaine Clark had 2 of the 5 hits for Barton. Andrew Lewton and Armitage combined to allow just 6 hits and 2 runs over 8 innings of work with Armitage taking the loss.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next 
March 29-30 – at Seward, 1 pm (Jayhawk West 4-game series at Gould Field in Liberal)