Barton Baseball's Brunner and Rodgers nab season's final KJCCC weekly honors #GoBarton
Barton Baseball’s Brunner and Rodgers nab season’s final KJCCC weekly honors.
Graham Brunner and Alex Rodgers of the 18th ranked Barton Community College baseball team have been named the season's final, week six KJCCC Division I Baseball Pitcher of the Week and Co-Player of the Week award.
Brunner shut down Colby despite the wind blowing out in game two last Thursday salvaging the doubleheader split leaving the Cougars atop the standings. The performance followed game one's combined thirty-three runs including eight Trojan home runs as the Cougars' thirteen game win streak was snapped and the split was pivotal in the conference title race. Brunner struck out a career high thirteen batters, allowing just three hits, two coming in the first inning for the Trojans' lone run while striking out the frame's three outs. Striking out the side in the second, Brunner struck out two in each of the fifth and sixth innings limiting the Trojans to just one hit the final six innings improving to 4-0 on the year behind the 12-1 run rule victory.
On the offensive side, Rodgers led the top of the lineup with a .600 batting average and a .667 on-base percentage helping the Cougars to a 2-1 week. Rodgers' lone hit against NIACC produced the game winning runs with a fifth inning three-run homerun for his team leading sixth of the year but his larger contribution came in a Thursday's conference doubleheader at Colby. Going 3-for-3 with two RBI in game one, Rodgers stayed solid at the top of the lineup when the Cougars needed it most with a pair of hits and an RBI helping the Cougars salvage the split.
Rodgers shares the final Player of the Week with Johnson County's Quinton Hall who batted .667 in the 9th ranked Cavaliers' 1-2 week.
On Monday of this week, the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) announced due to the progressive evolvement of the COVID-19 that all spring competition will be cancelled, effective immediately.
The immediate conclusion to the season leaves the Cougars atop the Jayhawk West Standings at 5-1 and 19-3 on the season.