Cougars answer in finale, salvage doubleheader split with Colby behind 12-8 nightcap win #GoBarton

The Barton Community College baseball team came away with a split in Saturday's series finale against Colby Community College at Jimmy Lawson-Danny Biggs Field, dropping the opener 6-5 before responding with a 12-8 victory in the nine-inning nightcap.

In the opener, the Cougars nearly completed a seventh-inning comeback, stranding the the tying run at second base in the final at-bat. Barton answered in the nightcap, overcoming an early 1-0 deficit with an 11-run surge across the middle innings, highlighted by a six-run fourth, four-run fifth, and a run in the sixth before holding off a late Colby charge.

Suffering their second conference series loss of the season, the Cougars move to 23-10 overall and 8-8 in Jayhawk West play while snapping a give-game conference skid. The Trojans depart Great Bend at 10-20 overall and 3-13 in league action. Barton returns to action Thursday, opening a four-game set with Dodge City Community College with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch at Jimmy Lawson-Danny Biggs Field.

On a day with 30-plus MPH winds blowing out to left field, the Cougars took advantage of the conditions belting a pair of home runs in each contest. Rhett Winchester led Barton at the plate, going 6-for-9 across the pair with a double, two home runs and five RBIs. Kyler Horsman added a 4-for-7 showing with a double, home run and three RBIs while Kyle Graves matched four hits in eight at-bats, collecting a double, triple, home run and a team-best six Rbis. Karston Wall chipped in three hits while Dalton Jorgensen added a pair as Barton finished the afternoon with 27 hits on the afternoon.

Game 1 Recap
The Cougars grabbed the early lead in the second as Bruin Sampson delivered a two-out RBI single following Jaxon Case's leadoff triple, but Colby answered with four runs in the third to swing the tide and added single runs in the sixth and seventh. The Cougars chipped away in the fifth on Winchester's two-run homer before pulling within out in the seventh behind JJ Spafford's leadoff double and Graves' two-run blast, but left the tying run stranded at second.

Winchester paced the Cougars at the plate with a 3-for-4 showing including a double and home run with two RBIs while Graves also drove in a pair behind his first big blast of the season.

Brian Justice (3-3) suffered the loss despite a career-high nine strikeouts, allowing five runs, four earned, on six hits over 5.2-innings.

Game 2 Recap
Colby struck first with a run in the second, but Barton flipped the game in the fourth, erupting for six runs highlighted by a two-run triple from Graves and a two-run home run from Horsman, his 10th of the year.

Graves two-run double extended the Cougar lead in the fifth before trotting home on Winchester's two-run blast, his team-leading 11th of the year, as Barton tacked on single runs in the sixth and seventh to push the advantage to 12-4. Colby put together a four-run eighth, but the Cougars' early offensive surge proved enough in the 12-8 victory.

Barton's top of the order did the damage as Graves, Winchester, and Horsman combined to go 9-for-14 with 10 RBIs and seven of the Cougars 12 extra-base hits. Graves finished 3-for-6 with a double, triple, and four RBIs while Winchester went 3-for-5 falling a double shy of the cycle with a triple, home run and three RBIs. Horsman matched three hits in four at-bats, adding a double, home run and three RBIs.

Pulling double-duty, Horsman notched the win on the bump, improving to 4-0 after allowing three runs, one earned, on four hits over five innings with six strikeouts in his first collegiate start.