Bonar's grand slam and six RBI day powers Cougar baseball to 16-8 win in McPherson #GoBarton

Fresh off its four game series sweep to open up the home portion of the 2018 schedule, the Barton Community College baseball team headed to McPherson Tuesday afternoon outscoring the junior varsity of McPherson College 16-8 in a single nine inning contest. The fifth straight win improves the Cougars to 9-3 on the year with four games left on its busy week, the first two coming on Friday with a 12:00 p.m. doubleheader at Redlands Community College with a home pair of games following at 1:00 p.m. Saturday hosting the JV of Bethany College.

Leading by three into the final inning, if there was any doubt of the outcome Brett Bonar squelched any hope of a Bulldog comeback as the Rose Hill sophomore deposited his third home run of the year over right field fence for a grand slam. Set up by Dawson Pomeroy working a full-count walk to begin the inning, Kaden Fowler drove a single up the middle on his first pitch seen, and Carson Engroff juiced the bases wearing a full-count pitch before Bonar launched the 0-1 pitch.

Aside from the clinching four RBI's, Bonar drove in Barton's first two runs on a single in following up Pomeroy's lead-off double and Fowler's ensuing single. The single by Fowler was the first of four on the day as the Towanda sophomore was 4-for-5 driving in runs with a single in the fourth and a double in the seventh.

Brady Michel collected three hits on the afternoon including the second home run of the Great Bend native's sophomore campaign giving Barton an early 3-1 lead in the top of the third.
Chandler Kelley matched Michel's three hit afternoon collecting the Maize freshman's first hit in the second, belting a triple in the seventh, and driving in Barton's final run with two outs in the ninth.

Five Cougars took the mound combining for eleven strikeouts with winning pitcher Easton Smith, Neil Lemmons, and Pomeroy each fanning three each. Austin Taylor got the start striking out two in two innings with Smith relieving Patrick McClure in the fourth in working two innings to pick up the Ellis freshman's first collegiate victory.