Cougars sweep West series with Cloud; still in hunt for home playoff sub regional

Cougars sweep West series with Cloud; still in hunt for home playoff sub regional

The Barton Community College baseball team felt the feeling of a Jayhawk West series sweep for the first time this season with a 4-game sweep of Cloud County over the weekend at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend. Barton scored in double digits in 3 of the 4 contests. Barton won 12-4 and 13-6 on Saturday then doubled up 5-4 and 13-10 Sunday. The sweep improves the Cougars to 15-9 in the West and 26-15 overall. Cloud falls to 4-16 in the West and 17-19 overall. The Cougars will travel to Butler to take on the Grizzlies next weekend as Barton tries to close strong in order to host 1 of the 4 sub regionals in early May. Butler is 9-11 in the conference and 18-19 overall. Prior to that Barton will play a single 9-inning mid-week game at Lawson-Biggs Field against the Kansas Wesleyan JV Tuesday at 6 pm.

Highlights
Saturday definitely wasn't as easy as the two scores might indicate. The Cougars trailed in the opener until the bottom of the 4th and led just 5-4 going into the bottom of the 6th inning of the 7-inning contest to start the day. The Cougars finally blew the game open with a 7-run 6th. During the 2nd game Saturday, Barton led just 6-5 after 4 innings and 7-6 after 6 innings of the 9-inning contest. Three runs in each the 7th and 8th gave Barton the comfortable win.

In the opener starter Keith Picht kept the Cougars in the game while the offense struggled. Picht held Cloud to just 1 run through the 1st four innings as the Cougars trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the 4th. There, Barton finally broke through. The Cougars put up 5 runs in the inning. Adam Geisick and Jordan Slade had back-to-back 2-run hits in the inning. Geisick delivered a 2-out single with the bases loaded to score Nathan Miller and Michael Tennessen. Slade followed with a double to center to knock in Tanner Carpenter and Geisick and give Barton a 5-1 lead. Picht did run into some trouble in the 5th but Ashton Sivigliano and James Hilts combined to get Barton out the inning with a 5-4 lead. Kyle Leroy then came on in the 6th for Barton with 2 on and 1 out and induced a pair of foul outs on the infield to secure Barton's 5-4 lead. A 7-run 6th for Barton took all questions out of the game. Tennessen had 3 hits in the win and drove in 3 while Slade knocked in 4 during the win. Picht picked up the win to move to 5-4 while Leroy finished the game after getting the Cougars out of jam in the 6th to record his 1st save of the season.

Barton jumped to a 4-1 lead in the opening inning of game two Saturday as Barton banged out 4 extra base hits in the inning. Federico Castagnini hit a 1-out solo homer and with two outs Ryan Busboom, Tennessen, and Clayton Garland strung together 3 consecutive run-scoring doubles. Cloud whittled the lead to 4-3 before Barton scored 2 more in the 3rd thanks to a pair of Cloud errors. But Cloud wouldn't go away and eventually tied the game at 6-all in the top of the 6th. Barton responded by scoring in the next 3 innings. Barton scored once in the 6th and 3 times in each the 7th and 8th. Carpenter's triple in the 7th scored Busboom and Tennessen and eventually himself off an error on the play. Geisick drove in 2 in the 8th as Barton scored 3 unearned runs off a costly Cloud error. AJ Green allowed just 1 run over 4 innings in relief to pick up the win and improve to 2-2. The two clubs combined for 28 hits – 12 of them extra bases on the windy day. Tennessen went 4-for-5 at the plate while Busboom scored 4 times and Mitch Slauter scored 3 times.

The Cougars also had to work for their two wins Sunday, scoring 2 in its last at bat in the opener to rally for a 5-4 win then coming from behind in the middle innings in the nightcap for the win.

Ian Smith settled in on the mound after a rough start in the opener Sunday in just his 2nd start of the season. Smith, who moved from bullpen late-inning work to starter after the season-ending injury to Robbie Van Cour, gave up 3 runs the 1st 2 innings but gave up just 1 unearned run over the final 5 innings to keep the Cougars within striking distance and pitch a complete game. Barton whittled the lead to 4-3 with single runs in the 4th and 5th then began its rally with one out in the 7th and final inning. Miller started things with an infield single followed by a Busboom single to left. Tennessen walked to load the bases and Adam Smith singled to tie the game at 4-all, scoring Miller and keep the bases loaded. Carpenter drew a walk to score Busboom and give the Cougars the come-from-behind win. Ian Smith picked up the win to improve to 2-1. Adam Smith and Busboom each had 3 hits with Smith driving in a pair. Busboom and Miller both scored twice.

The two teams knocked the ball around the park in the final game as the wind continued to howl out to right-center. Back-to-back 2-out doubles by Dylan Monroe and Busboom gave Barton a 2-0 lead in the 2nd, which they increased to 6-2 in the 3rd with the help of 2 unearned runs. But Cloud knocked around Barton starter Tyler Davis in the 5th and 6th innings after allowing Cloud just 2 runs through the 1st 4 innings of play. By the time Leroy got Barton out of the 6th inning, Cloud had an 8-7 lead on the Cougars. Barton wasted little time in regaining that lead. The Cougars scored 5 times in the bottom of the 6th. Slade started with a leadoff double followed by an RBI single by Castagnini and a walk to Slauter. After a sacrifice from Miller moved the runners up 90 feet. Busboom gave Barton the lead back with a single to score Castagnini and Slauter. Carpenter doubled in Busboom later in the inning and Monroe added an unearned run as Barton went ahead 12-8. A Busboom triple and eventual sac fly by Tennessen in the 8th made it 13-8 and Barton held on for a 13-10 win. Busboom had 2 triples in the game and Slade added a triple and double. Leroy picked up the win in relief for his first win of the year and is now 1-1.

Notes
The Cougars still do not control their own destiny to host 1 of the 4 sub regionals but would probably need a sweep this weekend to be in the mix. If the Cougars win 3 of 4 they still have an outside shot of host but not a good one. If Barton sweeps, it will be in the clubhouse at 19-9 in Region VI West standings – games that do not include Dodge City since the Conquistadors are playing Division II this season. So with Barton's bye date following Butler and Dodge City the final weekend on the slate, Barton would be done with its Region VI schedule after the Butler series. Colby and Garden City – both 11-5 – still have 3 series to play while region-leading Seward (14-6) has 2 series to play. Also lurking in the picture is Hutch at 9-7 with 3 series to play.

Barton banged out 50 hits over the weekend – 17 of those for extra bases. Castagnini had the only homer during the weekend and drove in 4 runs off 6 hits. Busboom had a huge weekend hitting .533 with 8 hits – 2 triples and 2 doubles. The sophomore 3rd baseman scored 11 runs in 18 plate appearances. Tennessen and Carpenter each drove in a team-high 6 runs, Tennessen on 7 hits and Carpenter on 6 hits. Carpenter had 2 doubles and a triple.

The Cougar bats are starting to find their swing with the batting average up to .314 for the season. Barton has 8 players with at least 40 at bats hitting over .300. Adam Smith leads that list in a minimum number of at bats as a platoon player with a .386 average. Busboom is hitting .371 for Barton with 43 hits, 9 doubles and 29 RBI. Slauter has the team lead in RBI with 32, home runs with 3 and doubles with 10. The sophomore catcher is hitting .351 with a team-high 46 hits. Slauter also leads the team with 47 runs scored base on balls with 28. Carpenter has been hot since taking over the everyday 2nd base spot and is hitting .368 on the year.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonsports.com 

Next
April 13 – v Kansas Wesleyan JV 6 pm (1 9-inning game at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)

Check out Barton Baseball Online at www.bartonsports.com