Cougars take 3 of 4 in Dodge; host Garden this weekend

Cougars take 3 of 4 in Dodge; host Garden this weekend 
The Barton Community College baseball team took 3 of 4 in its Jayhawk West series at Dodge City this past weekend. The Cougars swept the Conquistadors Saturday 10-1 and 6-2. Dodge rolled to a 13-3 win to start Sunday then Barton closed out the series with a 12-9 win. Barton is now tied for 5th in the West at 15-13 and still could finish as high as 3rd. The Cougars are 29-19 overall. Dodge locked up the No. 7 in the West with its 14-18 record and West season complete for Dodge. The other 8 teams will wrap up West play this weekend with Barton hosting Garden City at 1 pm both Saturday and Sunday at Lawson-Biggs Field.

Highlights
Barton received a pair of strong pitching efforts from Levi Schlick and Ben French Saturday – minus a few control issues. Schlick allowed just 3 hits and struck out 11 over this 7 innings of work in the series opener. Dodge scored a single unearned run in the 6th. But the freshman walked 7 batters in the process but continued to get himself out of trouble as Dodge left 9 runners on base.

Barton scored a pair of runs in the 2nd on RBI singles from Ian Smith and Nathan Miller and that is how the game stayed until the 6th of the scheduled 7-inning affair. But the final two innings Barton exploded for 8 runs to coast to the win. Corey Hatchel drove in 2 during a 3-run 6th with a single that scored Michael Tennessen and Mitch Slauter. Barton scored 5 times in the top of the 7th on just 3 hits. Tennessen and Smith each finished with 3 hits and Tennessen scored 3 times for Barton. Schlick picked up the win to improve to 5-3 and lower his ERA to 1.20.

French had a similar outing striking out 12 in his 7 innings of work, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs. French only walked 1 batter but hit 5 Conquistadors in his time on the mound during the 9-inning contest. Jordan Slade singled and scored in the top of the 1st but Dodge took a 2-1 lead in the 3rd. Barton worked its way back to the lead over the next several innings. The Cougars tied in the 5th on a Slauter triple that scored Hugo Hernandez. Ryan Busboom led off the 6th with a single and later scored to give Barton a 3-2 lead. The Cougars pushed it to 5-2 with 2 runs in the 7th when 5 straight walks produced 2 runs without a hit. Slade doubled in the 8th and scored on a Brandon Hoefler single to cap the scoring at 6-2. Smith also came in to record the save getting out of a 2-on, 2-out jam in the bottom of the 9th. James Hilts threw 1.2 innings without surrendering a run between French and Smith.

Things didn't go so well for Barton to opening things up Sunday.  Dodge scored 5 in the bottom of the 1st and Barton was only in the contest following a 2-run 5th that made it 6-3. But Dodge responded with 5 in the bottom of the inning and ended the game in the 6th with a pair of runs to make it 13-3. Schlick was the only Cougar with 2 hits in the loss.

Barton finished things up Sunday with a very eventful win. Barton appeared to be in control of the contest, scoring 6 runs in the 2nd and 4 more in the 3rd to grab an 11-2 lead early. Smith and Tennessen each drove in 3 during that spree while Slade, Hoefler, Schlick and Tennessen all scored twice. But Dodge quickly thrust themselves back in to the contest with a 7-spot in the 4th inning to make it an 11-9 contest. Hilts came in to record the final out of the inning then settled in and held the Conquistadors without a run on just 2 hits during 4 innings of work to earn the win. Again, Hilts gave way to Smith to earn the save – his 4th – by pitching the final 1.1 innings. Barton added an insurance run on Smith's 4th RBI of the contest in the 9th to score Busboom.

The Cougars will wrap up the regular season hosting Garden City in a 4-game set that could see Barton finish from 3rd to 6th. If Barton sweeps the Cougars will likely be at least a 4 seed from the West and possibly a 3 seed. Four losses would guarantee a 6th seed.

Comments from Coach Mike Warren
Saturday – The one thing we had to do if we were going to finish in the top half of the conference was win the Dodge City series. Levi went out and set a tone on Saturday with a good pitching performance on a day that the wind blew across at 40 mph. I thought our hitters made good adjustments to the wind and constantly kept the pressure on them. French probably had his best outing of the season and we executed offensively which is something we have been struggling with lately.

Sunday – After losing game one the way we did, I thought we came back and didn't let that bother us. They saved their number one pitcher for game four and I thought we went after him real good.  Scoring 11 runs in the first 4 innings really set the tone. James Hilts came in out of the pen and gave us some quality innings and Ian Smith closed the door in the ninth.

Notes
Schlick had been nearly unhittable his last 3 outings for the Cougars. The 6-6 lefty from Colby is 3-0 with a combined 8 hits and given up 2 runs – 1 earned during those 3 starts. He struck out 26 batters in those 21 innings of work and walked 10 – 7 in the outing Sunday at Dodge. Schlick now has 58 strike outs in his 52.1 innings of work. His ERA has just briefly been above 2.00 back in February. Since the 1st week of March, his ERA has never been above 1.72. It currently sits at 1.20, which is the 2nd best all-time behind a 1.09 from Brad Schmidt back in 1987. It is the lowest for a starter, which is currently held by Steve Sawyer with a 1.24 in 1980.

Barton post-season destination will likely be at Seward, Butler, Johnson or Cowley. Things will play out over the week and weekend to determine exactly where and whom the Cougars are going to play. Chances are the Cougars foe in the opening round will come from the trio of Coffeyville, Allen County or Neosho County.

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

Next
May 1-2 – v Garden 1 pm (Jayhawk West 4-game series at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)