Cougars split games to end season; travel to Chanute for post season

Cougars split games to end season; travel to Chanute for post season

The Barton Community College baseball team split its final regular season games over the weekend at Lawson-Biggs Field and now turns focus to the Region VI playoffs. Barton won a pair Saturday against Dodge City then dropped two Sunday to end the season with a 37-19 record. Barton finished 20-12 in the Jayhawk West, good for 3rd place. The Cougars also finished 3rd in the West for Region VI seeding purposes and will head to Chanute to Sub Regional action Saturday. Barton will take on Johnson County at 9:30 am with host Neosho playing Pratt at 12:30 pm.

Highlights
Barton won 6-2 and 18-5 Saturday as the Cougars cruised, giving Barton 17 wins in 19 games. But Barton lost as many the next day as it did the previous 19 in getting swept 8-3 and 5-4 to close out the regular season.

The Cougars fell behind 2-0 in the opener as Barton starter Keith Picht and Dodge starter Sean Dalton battled it out on the mound. Dodge scored twice in the 4th but Barton immediately answered that with 2 of its own in the bottom of the inning as Ryan Busboom singled with 1-out and the bases loaded to score Federico Castagnini and Mitch Slauter. Both started the inning with singles. The Cougars took a 3-2 lead in the 5th when Slauter singled to score Adam Geisick with 2 outs. Three more runs in the 6th gave the Cougars some breathing room on the way to the win. Pitch allowed 6 hits and 2 runs in the win, going all 7 innings with 5 strikeouts and just 1 walk. He improved to 6-4 with the win.

The Cougars picked up in game two where the left off in game one – scoring in every inning. After scoring in the final 3 innings of the opener, Barton scored in the first 3 innings of the nightcap. Barton plated 4 in the 1st, 7 in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd to build a 12-5 lead. The Cougars scored in all but one inning on the way to the 18-5 run-rule victory after 7 innings. Busboom banged out 3 hits – all triples – to drive in 4 runs and score twice. Miller and Tanner Carpenter each had 2 hits and drove in 2. Miller scored 4 times and Michael Tennessen drove in 3 runs. AJ Green picked up the win in relief, pitching the 3 innings and allowing just two base runners – one on walk and one on an error. The base on balls was immediately wiped out with a double play. He improved to 3-2 on the year.

The bats were not so hot Sunday. Barton mustered just 7 hits in the opener and never put together enough hits to score more than 1 run in any inning. No Cougars had more than 1 hit. Barton continued to have hitting troubles in the 2nd game as the Cougars collected just 6 hits in the loss. Barton whittled a 5-2 lead o 5-3 in the 7th and 5-4 in its final at bat but couldn't catch the Conquistadors. Jordan Slade had 2 of the Barton 6 hits.

Notes
Barton will head to Chanute for the 4-team double elimination bracket with a 17-4 record over its final 21 games. The Cougars will get an early start time with no lights at Hudson Field. Barton (3 seed from West) will play Johnson (6 East) at 9:30 am. Neosho (2 East) and Pratt (7 West) will follow at 12:30 pm. The losers of the opening round will meet in an elimination game set for 4:30 pm. Two games will follow on Sunday then finish Monday with the title game and if needed game.