Cougars can't keep up with hot hitting Saints, fall 12-10 in game one
Playing six games in three days, the Barton Community College baseball team needed and received solid pitching to earn a series split with Seward County Community College this past weekend. A day after sweeping Pratt Community College, the Cougars were faced with cooling off the hot Seward team with the wind blowing out to left field at Lawson-Biggs Field. Seward outlasted the Cougars for the 12-10 victory in game one of the series.
The Cougars scored three in the bottom of the first behind a single by Dylan Turpin and doubles from Alex King and Tito Andino. The Saints countered with three hits of their own in the top of the second getting back-to-back doubles from Alex Scanlan and Bret Lewis followed by a single by Reed Thompson.
Barton increased its lead back to two in the third inning when Turpin singled home Erik Benson who led off the inning with a walk.
The Saints broke the game open in the fourth and sixth inning scoring nine runs, six coming from the bat of Troy Owen who hit two three-run homeruns, one in the fourth and one in the sixth. Barton managed to sandwich a run in the fifth behind consecutive singles by Scott Tyler and Jace Bowman followed by an Aaron Coombs RBI fielder's choice to third.
After Seward tacked on another run in the top of the seventh on three consecutive singles by Diego Cruz, Johnny Griffith, and Kevin Hull, the Cougars launched one more rally to attempt to tie. Barton scored five in the inning drawing two walks, two hit batsman, and a two-run single by King. With the bases loaded and no outs, Saint's pitcher Griffith struck out two of the next three batters to preserve the Seward 12-10 win.
Garret Smith pitched one inning for the Saints to get the win despite giving up four runs and three walks. Brett Bond took the loss giving up five runs in 3.2 innings of work.
