Cougars win again in final at bat; sweep Colby to assure No. 2 seed

Cougars win again in final at bat; sweep Colby to assure No. 2 seed
The Barton County Community College baseball team won in its final at bat for the 6th time this season and for the 3rd straight series. After Tim Ruble's inside the park homer beat Pratt in extra innings Wednesday, it was Tyler Metcalf's turn Thursday in an all-important doubleheader at Colby. Metcalf blasted a 2-run homer in the top of the 7th to break a 5-all tie in the nightcap at Colby and secure a sweep of the Trojans in Jayhawk West action. Barton won the opener 18-6. The Cougars locked up no worse than a No. 2 seed from the West in the upcoming Region VI playoffs. The Cougars could still win the West with a sweep of Garden City Saturday and if Hutchinson losses 3 of its final 4 games. The Cougars are now 21-9 in the West and 30-18 overall. Colby, now tied for 3rd in the West, is 19-13 in conference play along with Butler. The final West doubleheader of the season for Barton will take place at 1 pm Saturday at Lawson Field in Great Bend with Garden City visiting.

Highlights
The Cougars dominated the opening contest, scoring in every inning of the game. The big inning came in the 4th when the Cougars tallied 8 runs. The 18 runs and 20 hits are both season highs for the Cougars. The onslaught started right from the opening batters as Austin Holt and Brent Biggs both reached on singles. After the two successfully pulled off a double steal, Wade Gubbels drove them in with a single an later scored on a Metcalf double. The scoring never stopped. By game's end, Holt, Gubbels, David Wilson and Tim Ruble each had 3 hits for Barton. Holt, who homered in the game, had 4 RBI as did Wilson, who also homered in the contest. Gubbels ended with 3 RBI. Holt, Biggs, and Ruble all scored 3 times in the contest. Very Barton players had a hit and scored a run in the game and all but Biggs – the team leader in RBI going into the game – drove in a run.

Ryan Sheldon coasted to the win in the contest, allowing 10 hits in his 5 innings of work to improve to 5-1 for the season.

The 2nd game proved to be a bit more difficult for the Cougars. Holt again led the game off with a single. This time he was bunted to 2nd on a sacrifice by Biggs and scored on a single by Robbie Adams. Adams also scored in the inning on a Metcalf single for a 2-0 lead. Barton led 3-0 after Metcalf doubled to start the 4th and scored on a ground out by Tyler Rpeka. After a 4-run 4th inning for the Trojans, Barton took a 5-4 lead in the 5th. Holt again started the inning with a hit, doubling then moving to 3rd on another sac bunt from Biggs. An Adams' double scored Holt and Adams scored on a sac fly by Wilson for the 5-4 lead.

Colby evened the score in the bottom of the inning and the game stayed tied at 5-all into the 7th. The 7th started simple enough as Adams popped out to 1st and Gubbels grounded to short. Wilson kept the inning alive with a single then Metcalf drove in his 2nd and 3rd runs of the game with the 2-out homer. Nathan Hedrick worked through a 1-out hit and a 2-out walk in the bottom of the 7th to earn the win. Hedrick tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball to earn the win and move to 6-1 on the season from the bullpen.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu

Next
Sat., April 22 – v Garden City, 1 pm (West doubleheader at Lawson Field in Great Bend)