Cougars can’t hold off Seward County’s Jayhawk West title run, drop first two games of series

Just when it looked like the Barton Community College baseball team might prevent Seward County Community College from wrapping up the Jayhawk West title, the Saints struck back for a doubleheader sweep Saturday.  Played at Larks Park in Hays, Kansas, on the artificial turf due to Friday evening's rain in Great Bend, the Saints looked like a home team on a mission scoring four unanswered in the last two innings in a come from behind 9-7 win in the opener then took advantage of a short right field porch with five homeruns and fifteen stranded Cougar base runners to win 12-5 in the nightcap.  The pair of losses damper the hopes of moving up in the finals standings dropping to 14-16 in the West and 24-25 while the Saints improved to 21-9 and 32-20.   The teams will wrap up the remaining two games and round out the regular season Sunday at Lawson-Biggs Field with a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader.

In conjunction of Sunday's regular season finale, a pre-game cookout is scheduled to precede a special recognition ceremony taking place prior to the 1:00 p.m. first pitch.   With free admission to each Barton baseball game, the public is invited to a pre-game cookout from noon-1:00 p.m. with a $5 suggested donation going towards support of Cougar Baseball.   Following the cookout and prior to first pitch, the Cougars will recognize the Rob and Kelly Bowman family and other supporters for their contributions to the newly constructed Bowman Family Press Box.

Answering the Saints' run in the first set up by Barton's lone error, Trevor Turner and Grant Watkins delivered one-out singles with Tyler Jennings following with a full-count walk.  Freshman Seth Troll drove a single to right field tying the game and leading the bases juiced.  Liking the second pitch he saw from Seward County starting pitch JB Olson, Lance White put the Cougars up 5-1 with a grand slam for his fifth homerun of the season.

Seward responded with two in the third and fourth innings to tie it up but the Cougars struck back in the home half of the fourth with two of their own.  Getting a leadoff Trevor Hughes single and Richardson walk, Hughes was picked off trying to steal third before Dylan Kuhn's double to left field regained the Barton lead.  With Kuhn advancing to third on a passed ball, Evan McDonald's single up the middle gave the Cougars a two run lead with three innings to play.

Following a stranded two-out single in the fifth and a 1-2-3 home half, the Saints got two out hits from Dillon Drury and Justin Graff-Roe tying the game once again.  One inning later, reliever Shane Adams had the Saints down to their final out but once again the Saints came through with the needed two-out hit along with a hit batsman to push the game winning margin to 9-7.

Adams dropped to 1-3 on the season giving up the two runs on three hits as Olson picked up the win improving to 9-3 despite allowing seven runs, three walks, and nine hits over 6.1 innings.  Jakob Hernandez nailed down the final two outs picking up the save stranding McDonald's leadoff double.

Getting outhit 15-9 in the opener, Barton got multi-hit performances from McDonald going 2-for-4 in the leadoff spot and White's 2-of-3 four RBI game. 

A fielder's choice and another two-out hit by the Saints staked Seward County out to an early two-run lead in the nightcap.  Consecutive singles by McDonald, Turner, and Watkins loaded the bases with no outs but Barton could only cut the deficit by one getting a Hughes two-out RBI getting plunked by Saints starter Hayden Howard.

Again the Cougars loaded the bases in the second as Jacob Richardson singled followed by a Kuhn walk and McDonald bunt for a single.  A Turner sac fly would tie it but the Saints escaped further damage with an inning ending double play. 

Three consecutive one-out home runs quickly took the Seward County lead out to 5-2 in the third as the Saints would power five of their fourteen hits over the wall.

An RBI double followed by a groundout increased the lead out two more runs in the fourth and single runs in the fifth and sixth grew the lead out to seven.

Consecutive one-out singles by Richardson, Kuhn, and McDonald loaded the bases for the third time in the game but a Turner fielder's choice RBI would be all Barton could get.  

Seward County countered with three in the seventh coming on number nine hitter Chad Kennedy's homerun clearing the short right field fence.

For the fourth time, the Cougars loaded the bases in the seventh behind singles by Jennings, White, and Hughes and again a fielder's choice would be the only RBI as Barton trailed 12-4 through seven complete.

Barton would get one more in the ninth coming on a Richardson sac fly but stranded two of their fifteen on the game in falling 12-5.

Griffin Jones took his first loss dropping to 0-1 lasting 2.1 innings in his first start of the season giving up five runs on seven hits.  Howard improved to 6-2 on the season getting the outs when he needed them giving up four runs on twelve hits in 6.0 innings of work.  Nathan Dockery came out of the pen to pick up his second save of the season going the last three innings scattering five hits and four strikeouts in surrendering a lone run.

McDonald, Watkins, and Richardson paced the 17-14 hit advantage with three hits each while Turner and Kuhn each finished with two.