Cougars polish off 5-1 weekend; one win from securing 3rd

Cougars polish off 5-1 weekend; one win from securing 3rd
The Barton County Community College baseball team went 5-1 over the weekend and moved within one win of clinching the 3rd spot in the Jayhawk West. Barton split makeup games with Dodge City Friday in Great Bend, then swept two at Butler County Saturday. The Cougars made it a 5-1 weekend with a sweep of Colby Sunday in Great Bend in Barton's final home games. The wins against Colby gave Barton a 12-4 home record this season in the West.

Barton is now 29-17 overall and 17-9 in the Jayhawk West. Seward has clinched the West with a 26-4 record while Hutch is 21-7. The rest of the conference remains under .500 with Cloud County (12-14) as the only team with a chance to catch the Cougars for 3rd. Barton still has 6 conference games remaining.

Highlights
After two consecutive rainouts in an attempt to play Dodge City, the two teams finally got the doubleheader in Friday afternoon. The Cougars won the opener 4-1 but fell in the second game by a 3-2 margin.

Derek McDaid provided strong pitching in the opener to secure the win, going the distance and allowing just 4 hits and the 1 run. McDaid struck out 8 to improve to 3-1 on the season. The Cougars didn't put the game away until a 3-run 6th broke open a 1-all contest. Michael Roberts' RBI double gave the Cougars the lead. In the nightcap, the Cougars took a 2-1 lead in the 4th as Mark Newton doubled in T.J. Liles and later scored on a Patrick Wallis single. But Dodge scored single runs in the 6th and 7th for the win.

Barton rebounded to sweep a conference road twinbill for second time this year in El Dorado, beating Butler County 7-0 and 5-4. The Cougars scored 3 times in the 1st inning and never looked back against the Grizzlies. Liles had 3 hits and 2 RBI to lead the offense while Andrew Burdine was near perfect on the mound. Throwing just 78 pitches in the complete game win, Burdine struck out 6, allowing just 4 hits and walked none. Burdine improves to 4-3 with the impressive win.

In the second game the Cougars had to work a little harder. Barton took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 5th when Newton hit a bases loaded single to score Josh Schaub and Roberts. But Butler rallied to even the score in the bottom of the inning. It was the same story the next inning as Barton took a 4-2 lead after a Schaub homer and a Jeff Christy RBI to score Glenn Jackson. But the Grizzlies again matched Barton's 2 runs with 2 of their own to even the score at 4-all. Barton had one more run in them, scoring once in the 7th on a Steve Elson single to score Wallis. This time the Grizzlies didn't answer and Barton had a 5-4 win.

The Cougars ended their home portion of the schedule Sunday with a pair of games against Colby. The Cougars won the opener 9-8 in 9 innings then won the second game by a 10-1 count.

Barton appeared to be on its way to an easy win in the opener, taking a 7-3 lead into the 7th inning. Barton scored 6 times in the 2nd inning on just 3 hits. A Roberts' single scoring Jackson and Elson capped the inning off. The Cougars made it 7-3 in the 4th on another unearned run scored by Jackson. But Colby put up 5 runs in the top of the 7th -- 3 of them with 2 outs -- to take an 8-7 lead on the Cougars. The Cougars tied the game in the bottom of the 7th on a 2-out single by Schaub to score Anthony Flores. After leaving the bases loaded in the 8th, the Cougars finally won the game in the 9th when Roberts singled to center to score Elson.

The Cougars had a much easier time of it in the second game, rolling to the 10-1 win. Barton scored 3 in the 4th and 4 in the 5th for the easy win. Glenn Jackson drove in 3 runs for Barton, highlighted by a 2-run triple in the 4th. Jackson also had a double in the contest. Schaub and Flores each drove in 2 runs and Ryan Wagner went the distance, allowing just 4 hits to pick up the win.

Next
April 30 -- at Pratt, 4 pm