Barton splits another West series; stands 4-4 in conference action

Barton splits another West series; stands 4-4 in conference action
The Barton Community College baseball team was again able to salvage a split of the Jayhawk West series over the weekend. After splitting the season-opening series with Dodge City, Barton traveled to Garden City and did likewise against the Broncbusters. The two clubs split double headers both Saturday and Sunday in a pair of pitching battles Saturday with hitting taking over by the final contest on Sunday. Barton and Garden are now both 4-4 in the West. The Cougars are 10-10 overall on the season while Garden is now 14-5. Colby and Butler lead the West at 5-3. Barton will be in action this weekend against Hutchinson – another team that is at 4-4 in the West. The weekend series will get under way Saturday at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend with a twinbill at 1 pm. The same 2 teams will battle Sunday at 1 pm in a pair of games as well.

Highlights
Barton lost a pitchers' duel in the opener to the Broncbuster by a 2-1 score. Matt Robinson went the distance for the Cougars, giving up just 2 runs – both in the 2nd inning after the 1st batters were retired. The Cougars lone run came in the 6th when Blaine Clark singled in Kensley Dukes.

The 2nd outing Saturday was also a low-scoring affair that saw the Cougars prevail in 11 innings by a 3-2 count. Garden led 1-0 when Clark struck again in the 6th with a 2-run double to score David Allbritton and Brandon Hoefler. Garden tied the game in the bottom of the 7th sending the game to extra frames. The two teams battled through 3 scoreless innings before Barton tallied a run in the 11th. Hoefler singled in Lance Woltemath for what proved to be the winning run with 2 outs in the inning. Drew Smith shut down the Broncbusters in the bottom of the 11th to pick up the win after 3 2/3 innings of 2-hit scoreless baseball. Clark had 3 hits in the win.

The scores went up Sunday with the two clubs splitting games again. Garden won 6-4 in the opener after plating 3 runs in the opening inning. Barton was able to work its way back into a tie and eventually took the lead before the Broncbuster scored 3 more times in the bottom of the 6th for the win. Allbritton drove in Barton's 1st run in the 4th and put the Cougars on top 4-3 with an RBI single in the 6th to score Kent Urban. That lead was short-lived though, as 3 hits produced 3 runs in the 6th for the Garden win.

Barton won a slugfest in the finale over Garden 15-8. Barton trailed 8-4 when it exploded for 9 runs in the 5th. Robertson started it with an RBI single to score Urban and Austin Messerli followed with 2-run single that scored Allbritton and Clark to cut the lead to 8-7. Bryce Wells tied the game with an RBI single and Woltemath gave Barton a 9-8 lead with an RBI double. Dukes delivered a big blow with a 2-run, 2-out double to give the Cougars an 11-8 lead. Urban and Allbritton both drove in runs before the inning was over and Barton led 13-8 on its way to the 15-8 win. Allbritton had 4 hits in the win to go with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Dukes drove in 3 and Urban scored 3 times on 3 hits. Drew Martineau pitched 4 innings of 2-hit shutout baseball for the win.

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

Next
March 14-15 – v Hutch 1 pm (Jayhawk West 4-game series at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)