Butler holds off Barton in controversial play to win game two and take weekend series
Featuring solid pitching from both teams in Saturday’s second game, a ninth inning rally by the Barton Community College baseball team fell just short in losing 3-2 to Butler Community College at El Dorado’s McDonald Stadium. Losing three-of-four in the weekend series, Barton drops to 12-20 on the season and 7-13 in conference play while Butler improves to 13-11 overall and 9-7 in Jayhawk play. Barton will again take to the road next weekend traveling to Lee’s Summit, Missouri, to take on MCC-Longview. First pitch for Saturday’s doubleheader at the Laker’s field set for 2:00 p.m. while Sunday’s doubleheader set to begin at 1:00 p.m.
Butler got all the runs they needed in the first two innings, scoring one in the first and two in the second.
Barton's Brett Bond and Butler's Greg Houser locked in a pitcher's dual for most of the game, combining for eleven strikeouts and thirteen hits. Bond, who dropped to 0-5 on the season, pitched 7.1 innings scattering nine hits and striking out four. Improving to 2-3 on the season, Houser only allowed three hits in his seven innings of work striking out seven Cougars along the way.
The game got interesting in the ninth as the Cougars began to rally against the Butler relief pitcher Trever Ezell. After a Braxton Byfield ground out to start the inning, Pete Ruiz walked then advanced to third on Oscar "Tito" Andino's double to center field. Andre Vieyra then came off the bench to pinch hit and promptly singled to center scoring Ruiz. The Cougars looked to be on the verge of a big inning but Alex King was called out after appearing to beat out an infield single. Andino scored on the play but left the Cougars down to their final out with the tying run at second base. Ezell came back to induce a Erik Benson groundout to third base and Butler escaped with the 3-2 win.