No. 23 Barton drops conference opening doubleheader to Seward County #GoBarton

The No. 23 Barton Community College baseball team opened Jayhawk Conference play Thursday afternoon at Jimmy Lawson-Danny Biggs Field, dropping a doubleheader to Seward County Community College 5-3 and 9-3.

Seward County capitalized in the middle innings of both contests to secure the doubleheader sweep. The Saints used timely hitting and took advantage of Barton miscues in the opener for a 5-3 victory before again creating separation in the nightcap with multi-run innings in the middle frames, while the Cougars left nine runners stranded in the 9-3 defeat.

The pair of setbacks snap Barton's five game winning streak as the Cougars fall to 14-4 overall and 0-2 in conference play while the Saints improve to 8-13 on the season and 2-0 in league play. The two teams will close out the four-game set Saturday afternoon with a 1:00 p.m. twinbill at Brent Gould Field in Liberal.

Barton produced 16 hits across the doubleheader but was unable to capitalize consistently, leaving 17 runners stranded. Kyle Walker extended his team-best hitting streak to 12 games with hits in both contests finishing 3-for-9 with a double. Micah McGavran provided the Cougars' biggest swings of the afternoon, going 3-for-7 with a pair of home runs and two RBIs, while Rhett Winchester added two hits including a solo home run and Kyler Horsman also connected for a home run.

Game 1 Recap
Seward County used a pair of multi-run innings to take control in the opener, defeating Barton 5-3. McGavran evened the contest at 1-1 in the second inning with a solo home run, his fifth of the season at the time, but the Saints answered with the decisive back-to-back-run innings in the middle frames. Jhett Huffman delivered a two-run blast in the fourth before Seward County capitalized on a pair of Cougar errors in the fifth to extend the lead to 5-1.

Barton delivered a pair of late comeback bids, trimming the deficit behind Kyle Graves' RBI single in the fifth and Horsman's solo home run in the seventh, his sixth of the year, but could get no closer with the tying run kept from coming to the plate over the final two batters.

The Cougar bats were limited to six hits in the opener, highlighted by three extra-base knocks as Walker added a double alongside the solo home runs from McGavran and Horsman.

On the mound, Antonio Mendez (0-1) worked five innings in the start, allowing five runs, three-earned, on seven hits while striking out seven before Trey Mackwood closed out the final two frames in relief.

Game 2 Recap
Much like the opener, the middle innings proved decisive as the Saints broke open a 1-1 contest with six runs across the fourth and fifth innings on the way in a 9-3 nightcap victory.

The Cougars grabbed their lone lead of the afternoon in the second inning as Bruin Sampson's RBI single scored McGavran following his leadoff single, before Seward County answered with back-to-back three-run frames in the fourth and fifth innings, highlighted by Jorge Beitia Tunon's three-run home run in the fourth to provide the needed separation.

The Cougars produced 10 hits in the contest, highlighted by solo home runs from McGavran in the eighth and Winchester's ninth inning blast, his third of the season.

McGavran, Walker and Winchester each recorded two-hit performances to key the Cougar offense.

Starter Braden Hauschel (1-2) worked the opening 4.2-innings, allowing six runs on nine hits while striking out four. Landon Ritchey handled 3.1 innings in relief, surrendering three runs on six hits with one walk and one strikeout, while Aidan Medina worked a scoreless ninth yielding one hit and striking out two.