Tyler blasts two homeruns as Barton outlasts Butler to capture game one of Saturday’s doubleheader
The Barton Community College baseball jumped on the Butler Community College Grizzlies for seven runs in the first inning of game one of Saturday’s doubleheader then held on for a 13-9 victory at El Dorado’s McDonald Stadium. Barton improves to 13-18 on the season and 7-12 in conference play while Butler drops to 12-11 and 8-7.
The Cougars went wild at the plate to begin Saturday's game one as five out of the first six batters hit for extra bases in Barton's seven run first inning. Alex King led off the inning with a double to left field then was followed by a Erik Benson triple to right field and a Jace Bowman double to center field. After an Aaron Gile groundout, Dylan Turpin and Braxton Byfield went back-to-back with doubles as the Cougars held an early 4-0 lead. Great Bend freshman Mitch Kottas got in on the hit parade with his single to right field scoring on Scott Tyler's single to center. King picked up his second hit of the inning with a single up the middle allowing Tyler to score for the 7-0 Barton lead.
Butler got one back in the home half as leadoff hitte Parker drew a walk then stole second base. After a Barton fielding error advanced Parker, a Koehler ground out scored the Grizzlies first inning run.
The two teams would score seven runs combined in the next two innings as Barton held a 10-5 lead after three innings of play. A Gile double to center field in the second inning and Tyler's third inning homerun to right field helped the Cougars score three while the Grizzlies countered with two in each of the second and third innings.
The Grizzlies cut into the Barton lead in the fifth getting a Brandon Taylor two-run homerun to key a three run inning to trail the Cougars 10-8.
After a King double led off the sixth, Gile came through with a two-out single up the middle as Barton increased its lead back to 11-8.
The Cougars added insurance runs in the seventh as Tyler hit his second homerun to right field in the game scoring Byfield to give the Cougars a 13-8 lead.
Despite giving up a run in the seventh, Devin Welch pitched 1.2 innings striking out three of the seven batters he faced in earning his first save of the season.
Andrew Ferguson picked up the win for the Cougars improving to 3-2 on the season pitching two innings of one-hit ball with two strikeouts despite giving up three runs. Rolfs took his first loss of the season to drop to 2-1 on the season for the Grizzlies giving up six of the Cougars seven runs in the first inning and only recording one out.