Barton holds off Colby to take 3 of 4 games in series; Cougars 3rd in West

Barton holds off Colby to take 3 of 4 games in series; Cougars 3rd in West
The Barton County Community College baseball team held off Colby twice Sunday afternoon for a sweep in the final 2 games of the 4 games series over the weekend at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend. Barton won a pair of 10-9 games Sunday after splitting games Saturday with the Trojans. Barton won the opener Saturday 7-6 then lost 19-8 in the 2nd game. The Cougars improved to 19-16 on the season and 14-10 in the Jayhawk West. Colby falls to 18-18 and 10-10. The Cougars will be on the road this weekend, traveling to Concordia for a 4-game series Saturday and Sunday against Cloud County. Both twinbills start at 1 pm.

Highlights
With the wind blowing out Saturday at 40 mph, high scoring games were expected. Barton won the opener in the series, fighting off Colby in the 7th inning for the win. That would be repeated 2 more times before the series was over. Barton scored 3 times in the bottom of the 1st against the Trojans and never trailed in the game. Kenny Burkhead drove in 2 in the 1st. Colby tied the game with 2 in the 2nd and 1 in the 3rd but Barton scored 3 more times in the 4th to take a 6-3 lead. The Cougars took a 7-4 lead into the 7th where Colby scored twice and tying run on 2nd before Drew Smith got the final out and recorded the save for Barton. It was the Cougars' closer's 1st appearance since March 18 due to injury. Burkhead, Marc Albers, and Kent Urban all drove in 2 runs in the game. Ryan Romo went 6 innings, allowing 4 runs to improve to 4-2. It was Smith's 6th save of the year.

In the 2nd game Saturday, Colby pounded out 22 hits – 4 home runs – scoring in every inning for the win. Barton plated 5 runs in the 2nd inning, 3 on a bases loaded doubled by Michael Sickinger. That briefly gave the Cougars a 6-4 lead but Colby re-took the lead in the top of the 3rd. Barton again answered with 2 more in the 3rd for an 8-7 lead when Blain Clark drove in 2. Colby came back with 5 runs in the 4th and the Cougars couldn't keep pace.

The two teams traded big innings in the 3rd Sunday in the opener with each club scoring 5 times. Barton had a 2-1 lead heading into the 3rd before the teams traded 5 spots in the inning. Barton took another 3-run lead into the 7th before seeing Colby pull within 1 run and have the tying run in scoring position before coming up short as Barton won 10-9. Albers drove in 3 in the win while David Allbritton had 2 RBI, 2 hits, and 2 runs scored. Burkhead had 3 hits and 3 runs scored in the win. Austin Anderson got the win for Barton to improve to 5-1 while Smith picked up his 2nd save of the series for 7 on the season.

The Cougars fell behind 5-0 in the top of the 1st in the series finale, but were able to overcome that in quick order. Barton scored 3 in the 1st and 6 in the 2nd to take an 8-5 lead on the Trojans. From there, Spencer Blades shut down Colby until the final inning. Blades came in to record the final out of the 1st inning and worked into the 7th. When he gave up a 1-out hit in the 7th it ended a stretch of 13 straight batters retired and 17 of 19 since entering the game. Cole Armitage came in an eventually recorded the save for Barton, again seeing a 3-run lead (10-7) cut to 1 run with the tying run in scoring position before Armitage recorded the final out. Burkhead drove in 3 in the win with Sickinger and Clayton Karst each getting 2 hits and 3 RBI. Clark and Albers each scored twice.

Barton is in sole possession of 3rd place in West with 8 games remaining. Barton has a 4-game series at Cloud this weekend before hosting Butler the following weekend to conclude the West schedule.

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next 
April 12-13 – at Cloud, 1 pm (Jayhawk West 4-game series in Concordia)