Cougars split series at Butler; await fate for home playoff series

Cougars split series at Butler; await fate for home playoff series
The Barton Community College baseball team split its 4-game series at Butler over the extended weekend, winning one game each Friday and Monday at McDonald Stadium in El Dorado. The split completes the Cougars Jayhawk West schedule with an 18-14 record. The top 4 teams in the West will receive a 1st round home playoff series. Barton is currently in 5th place with the rest of the league completing its West schedule this weekend. Barton is now 26-21 overall with a 3-game series at Coffeyville this weekend and a home doubleheader with Clarendon (Texas) April 28. Region VI playoffs will begin May 2-3 with 1st round series. In the process Drew Smith tied Brad Schmidt as the single-season record holder in saves with a pair to run his season total to 11.

Highlights
Barton started off the series with a win for the 2nd straight time after losing the 1st 6 series openers. The Cougars outlasted Butler in the opener, getting an early lead and responding every time Butler battled back. Barton scored 2 in the 1st only to see Butler match that total in the bottom of the inning. But Barton responded with 3 in the top of the 2nd for a 5-2 lead. Kensley Dukes hit a 2-run homer in the 2nd. Butler evened the score at 5 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 4th before the Cougars again responded with 2 in the top of the next inning. Kent Urban led off with a homer and Hugo Hernandez scored Allbritton with 2 outs for a 7-5 lead. Butler scored a run off Smith in the bottom of the 7th but it wasn't enough as Smith collected his 10th save. Matt Robertson went 5 innings for the win, improving to 4-4 on the year. Urban and Allbritton each had 3 hits while Urban and Dukes each had 2 RBI for the Cougars. Urban also scored 3 times.

Barton nearly rallied for a sweep on Friday but eventually lost the game 5-4 in extra innings. Michael Cotter rolled through 5 innings of work and took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 6th. That is when Cotter ran into trouble and the Barton bullpen wasn't able to bail him out. Butler scored 4 times in the inning and took that 4-1 lead into the 7th. But the Cougars wouldn't go easily. Brett Schwartz started the inning with a double and Austin Messerli followed one out later with another 2-bagger to make it 4-2. Back-to-back 2-out hits allowed Barton to tie the game at 4-all. Lance Woltemath singled in Messerli with 2 outs and Dustin Phelps followed with a game-tying double that scored Woltemath. But 3 singles in the bottom of the 8th – 2 with 2 outs – loaded the bases for Butler and a base on balls ended the contest with the Grizzlies winning 5-4.

The Cougars fell behind early in the opener Monday and never really threatened in the contest. Butler scored 4 in the bottom of the 3rd off the recent red-hot Spencer Blades to take a 5-0 lead on its way to a 6-1 win. Blades allowed just 1 hit in his 2 1/3 innings but 5 walks proved to be the downfall and Butler ended the game with 4 total hits to score those 6 runs. Barton also had just 4 hits in the game with Charles Trottier collecting 2. It was just the 2nd loss for Blades who is now 5-2.

Barton finished off the series with a 4-2 win, jumping to a 4-0 lead after 3 innings and holding on for the win. Barton took a 1-0 lead on an unearned Phelps run in the 1st and pushed it to 3-0 in the 2nd. Hernandez singled in Blaine Clark and Dukes singled in Hernandez in the frame. The Cougars added a 4th – and final – run in the 3rd inning on an Allbritton home run. Andrew Hawkins shut down Butler on just 1 hit through 4 innings before running into trouble in the 5th. A walk and a pair of 1-out doubles made it 4-2 before Hawkins gave way to Smith. Smith got the final 2 outs and held Butler to just 1 hit the final 2 innings to pick up that 11th save of the season to tie Schmidt as the single-season record holder at Barton. Smith now has a career-best 19 saves over his 2 years at Barton. The Cougar pitchers again combined to allow Butler just 4 hits for the 2nd straight game Monday but walks were once again an issue with Hawkins walking 5 as he improved to 6-2 on the season.

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

Next
April 24-25 – at Coffeyville (non conference 3-game series at Walter Johnson Park in Coffeyville)