Barton drops pair of heartbreakers in sub regional to end season

Barton drops pair of heartbreakers in sub regional to end season

The Barton Community College baseball team saw its season come to and end with a pair of 1-run losses in Region VI Sub Regional action Saturday in Chanute. The Cougars lost the opening game of the day – a morning affair – with an 8-7 setback to Johnson County then fell in the final game on Saturday 6-5 to Pratt. The losses eliminated Barton from post season play with a record of 37-21.

Highlights
Barton gave up 7 unearned runs in the opening game thanks to 5 errors. Johnson built an 8-3 lead on Barton before the Cougars made a furious rally that came up just short, sending them to the loser's bracket of the 4-team double-elimination tournament.

Johnson took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning without a hit but a Jordan Slade home run in the 3rd tied the game at 1-all. Johnson scored 2 unearned runs in the 4th to take a brief 3-1 lead on Barton but the Cougars came back with 2 of their own in the bottom of the 4th. After back-to-back strike outs to start the inning Tanner Carpenter drew a 2-out walk and scored on an Adam Geisick double. Geisick come home on a Slade single to tie the game at 3-all.

The Cavaliers added 3 unearned runs in the 5th and 2 more in the 7th to take control of the contest at 8-3. But Barton had a rally in them. The Cougars used a big 8th inning to get back in the game. Michael Tennessen started it with a leadoff homer to make it 8-4. The Cougars did the rest of the damage with two outs. Slade started it with a 2-out triple to score Clayton Garland then came home on a single by Mitch Slauter to make it 8-6. Nathan Miller drew a walk to load the bases and Ryan Busboom was hit by a pitch to score Federico Castagnini and make it 8-7. That is where the rally ended as Barton left the bases loaded.

In the 9th the Cougars again made things interesting. A pair of walks put runner on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs but that is where the game ended as Barton stranded 5 runners in the final 2 innings in the loss. Slade had 3 hits for the Cougars and drove in 2 runs to pace the offense, which outhit the Cavaliers 9-6 in the loss but 5 errors were the difference. Johnson did not commit an error.

Niccoli Loardi made the start for the Cougars, going into the 5th inning and allowed just one earned run but he took the loss. The Cougar bullpen allowed just 2 unearned in 4.2 innings of work. Cody Schumacher tossed 7 innings for Johnson, striking out 12 Cougars and allowed 5 hits and 3 runs.

Barton started off its elimination contest with Pratt in a good fashion bolting out to a 4-0 lead after 2 innings and a 5-0 lead after 5 innings. The Cougars scored in the top of the 1st when Slade doubled and scored on a single by Slauter. Barton continued to the ball around the park in the 2nd inning. Geisick singled in Garland and scored on another Slade double. Slauter again drove in Slade for the 4-0 lead. A single run in the 5th – Garland's single that scored Busboom – gave the Cougars a 5-0 lead. That is where the game stayed as the right arm of Keith Picht was mowing down Pratt batters.

Pratt scored 1 in the 7th and eventually ran Picht from the mound with 2 more in the 8th to make it a 5-3 game. The Beavers then wasted little time in the bottom of the 9th with a pair of singles to start the inning followed by two doubles off the left field wall to win the game 6-5 and end the Cougars season.