Warren hits milestone wins as Barton takes 3 of 4 from Pratt in West play

Warren hits milestone wins as Barton takes 3 of 4 from Pratt in West play

The Barton Community College baseball team won 3 of 4 over the extended weekend at Pratt in Jayhawk West baseball, in the process earning Coach Mike Warren a pair of milestone wins. With its win in the opener Sunday, the Cougars handed Warren his 800th win at Barton and with the opening win on Monday gave the veteran skipper his 900th win overall. Barton is now 7-5 in the West and 15-11 overall while Pratt stands at 3-9 and 13-12. The Cougars will step outside the conference with a trip to Salina Wednesday for a single game against Brown Mackie then return home to Lawson-Biggs this weekend to host Seward County in Jayhawk West play.

Highlights
Coach Warren earned his 800th career win at Barton in the opener Sunday after the series was pushed back one day. Barton jumped to a 5-1 lead in the 2nd inning of the series opener and never looked back. Federico Castagnini delivered the big blow in the inning with a 3-run double down the left field line scoring Corey Hatchel, Tanner Carpenter, and Jordan Slade. Ryan Busboom put Barton on the board earlier in the inning with a double that scored Nathan Miller. Barton put the game out of reach in the 5th and 6th innings with 5 more combined runs highlighted by a Mitch Slauter 2-run homer in the 6th.

Sophomore Keith Picht was superb on the mound, going all 7 innings and scattering 5 hits. Picht struck out 5 and walk none to improve to 4-2 on the season. Busboom had 3 hits in the win.

The Cougars couldn't pull off the sweep Sunday to give Coach Warren his 900th overall, losing 5-3 in the nightcap. Barton fell behind 3-0 in the bottom of the 1st but tied the game at 3-all when Corey Sager belted a 3-run homer in the 4th scoring Dylan Monroe and Ian Smith. Pratt retook the lead with a 2-out, 2-run single in the 6th for the eventual final of 5-3. Barton outhit the Beavers 9-5 in the loss but left 10 runners stranded to just 5 for the Beavers.

Barton made Coach Warren sweat it out in the opener Monday but delivered with a 3-2 win in 11 innings. Barton took a 1-0 lead in the 4th when Michael Tennessen singled in Slauter. The Cougars increased it to 2-0 the next inning when Miller singled in Slade. But a Pratt run in the 6th and another in the 7th as Barton was looking to close out the game sent the contest to extra innings. The Cougars finally broke the tie in the 11th with an RBI single to center by Miller to score Castagnini. Pratt got a 2-out double in the bottom of the 11th but Smith struck out the final batter to pick up the win.

The Cougars got great pitching efforts from both starter Robbie Van Cour and Smith out of the bullpen. Van Cour went 6 innings, allowing 1 run, 5 hits and 2 walks with 5 strike outs. Smith finished, going 5 innings and striking out 7 on just 3 hits and no walks. Miller had 3 hits to go with his 2 RBI in the 3-2 win.

Barton closed out the series with a 10-1 win scoring in the opening 4 innings while building a big lead early then riding the pitching staff for the win. The Cougars pitchers allowed just 2 hits in the 7 innings of play. Ben Minnihan got the win for the Cougars to improve to 3-0. Taylor Davis and Niccolo Loardi also threw in the win. Castagnini had a big game at the plate going 4-for-5 with 4 RBI. Tennessen drove in a pair and Adam Geisick scored 3 times in the win.  

Notes
Warren picked up his 900th win at the same ball park he notched his 1st win – Stanion Field. He started his coaching career with the Pratt Beavers 31 years ago, guiding Pratt to 37-48 record in two seasons. He went 62-62 in 3 seasons at Dodge City before taking over the Barton program for the 1985 season. Coach Warren is now 901-645 overall and 802-535 at Barton.

Picht has pitched well since being moved to the opening of the rotation in the Hutchinson series. Since that time he has gone 15.1 innings allowing just 4 runs. Picht has 13 strike outs and 1 walk over those 3 starts and is 3-0. His ERA has dropped from 4.00 to 3.24.

Busboom had a big series at the plate, hitting .467and scoring 5 times. Castagnini drove in 7 during the 4 games. The Cougar pitching staff posted a 2.18 ERA during the series with 27 strike outs and 13 walks. Pratt hit just .180 against the Barton pitchers.

The upcoming weekend series with the Saints will give the Cougars a chance to put themselves in position to win the Jayhawk West. Seward will bring a 9-3 West record to Lawson-Biggs field, 2 games ahead of Barton and leading the Jayhawk West. If the Cougars can take 3 of 4 for the 3rd straight West series, Barton would catch the Saints. Games times for the Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders are 1 pm.

Coach Warren Comments
On Pratt series
I thought it was a good weekend, but not a great weekend. If we had won 4 games, it would have been great.  
I think our pitching staff answered some questions last weekend. We hadn't been throwing enough strikes and we did that at Pratt. 

The key hit in the series was Nathan Millers' two out RBI single in the 11th inning in game 3.  If we don't win that game we lose contention for the conference championship. We gave up a lead in the 7th of that game, but Ian Smith was huge on the mound keeping them scoreless and we didn't let the loss of the lead get us down.  We continued to put pressure on until we won the game.

Keith Picht set the tone for the weekend with his pitching performance in game 1.  Ben French started to show signs of returning to his 2010 form and Rob Van Cour had a great start in game 1 on Monday.  Taylor Davis, Smith and Niccolo Loardi were good out of the bull pen.

On 900 wins
I didn't start coaching to reach 900 wins but when you have good players and good assistant coaches the wins and longevity pile up. There are a lot of people who are responsible for this.

It's a lot of wins but also a lot of losses. I consider the players and assistants responsible for the wins and myself responsible for the losses. I remember a lot more of the losses than I do the wins.

It was very ironic that win 900 came on the same field that I started my coaching career on.  One of my players that played for me when I coached at Pratt came to the games on Saturday and it meant a lot. I have a lot of great memories in coaching, but the first place I coached will always have a special place in my heart.

The texts and e-mails I've gotten since from former players and assistants mean a lot to me, but the players I have on this team mean the world to me. They knew the win total before I did and they felt good about them being the ones to reach this milestone. Hopefully it will be a special year.  

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonsports.com  

Next
Mar 23 – at Brown Mackie 4 pm (non conference action at Salina) 

Check out Barton Baseball Online at www.bartonsports.com