Barton rebounds with pair of wins Tuesday to split West series with Colby

Barton rebounds with pair of wins Tuesday to split West series with Colby
The Barton Community College baseball team bounced back with a pair of wins Tuesday to split its Jayhawk West series with Colby. Barton lost a pair Monday then swept the West leaders on Tuesday to stay within striking distance in a jumble West race. Barton rode a 1-hit effort from pitcher Spencer Blades in the opener Tuesday and followed with a rally from 6-3 down in the 2nd game for the sweep. The games were originally scheduled to be played in Colby Saturday and Sunday but snow in that area moved the location and dates of the games. It is the 2nd weekend in a row Barton has had to move location and dates due to snow. Barton is now 19-18 overall and 13-11 in the West. Colby falls to 25-14 and 12-8 in West play. Garden leads the West with a 13-7 record. Barton will be at home this weekend with games sandwiched around Easter. Barton will play Saturday and Monday against Cloud with first pitch set for 1 pm at Lawson-Biggs Field.

Highlights
The 1st day of play wasn't a good one for the Cougars as Colby dominated its way to a sweep. The Trojans won the opener 10-2 and followed with an 11-7 win as they scored in 10 of the 14 innings played during the cold, windy day. The Trojans pounded out 29 hits in the wins to just 16 for the Cougars – and 5 of Barton's hits came in a 4-run 7th to end the day after the Cougars trailed 11-3. David Allbritton was one of the lone bright spots during the day driving in 5 runs in the 2 games.

It was a different story from the get-go Tuesday. The Cougars put 6 runs on the board in the bottom of the 1st and never looked back. Allbritton continued his hot hitting with a 3-run blast to dead center field in the frame. From there Blades was in control. The only hit the sophomore left-hander allowed was bloop single to center just out of the infield. He struck out 4 and walked just 1 during the win to improve to 4-1 on the year. His ERA is now at 3.89 for the season. At the plate Brett Schwartz doubled twice and drove in a pair while Urban had a pair of hits and scored twice.

Barton appeared to be cruising along in the 2nd game as well, staking a 3-0 lead after 2 innings. But things fell apart for Cougar starter Andrew Hawkins in the 3rd. He was roughed up for 6 runs on 6 hits in the inning before giving way to Drew Smith who closed out the inning on his way to 5 innings of 3-hit shutout baseball in relief. While Smith was mowing down Trojans Barton whittled the lead to 6-4 in the 3rd when Allbritton leadoff the inning with a single and Schwartz followed with a double. Lance Woltemath later walked the bases to score Allbritton.

That same combination resulted in another run in the 5th to make it 6-5. Allbritton lead off with a single and Schwartz followed with a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd to start the inning once again. Austin Messerli later flied out to score Allbritton. Schwartz continued to drive the ball in the final inning, tying the game at 6-all with a 1-out single to score Kent Urban in the bottom of the 7th. Schwartz later scored the winning run when Woltemath singled to center with the bases loaded and 1-out – his 3rd RBI of the contest. Smith improved to 3-2 with the win.

The Cougars have shuffled the deck again this weekend, moving what was going to be a Friday-Saturday twinbill at Lawson-Biggs Field to accommodate Easter to a Saturday, Monday affair. Both doubleheaders will start at 1 pm.

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

Next
April 11, 13 – v Cloud 1 pm (Jayhawk West series at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)