Cougars take 3 of 4 from Hutch; bounce back into West race

Cougars take 3 of 4 from Hutch; bounce back into West race

The Barton Community College baseball team swept a pair of games Sunday to cap off the Jayhawk West weekend series winning 3 of 4 against Hutchinson at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend. Barton never allowed more than 4 runs in any contest and never more than 8 hits to the Blue Dragons. Meanwhile Barton pounded out double digits hits in 3 of the 4 contests. The wins move Barton 4-4 in the West standings while dropping Hutch to 4-4 as well. Barton is 10-9 on the season and Hutch is 4-8. Barton will be off from West play for 2 weeks and will not play at all until March 14 when the Cougars host defending NJCAA Champion Iowa Western for a 1 pm single game at Lawson-Biggs.

Highlights
Barton won the opener Saturday thanks to some timely pitching and hitting. The Cougars won that contest 3-2 with just 3 hits. The Cougars scored their 1st run after Federico Castagnini drew a 1-out walk with Hutch up 1-0 in the top of the 4th. Mitch Slauter followed with a huge at bat. With Castagnini taking off on a hit-and-run, Slauter stuck his bat to reach a low outside pitch and knock it perfectly into the vacated hole left by the 2nd baseman covering 2nd for just the 2nd hit of the day for the Cougars. Castagnini easily advanced to 3rd on the hit then scored when Nathan Miller launched a fly ball to center field for the sacrifice after battling for several pitches to stay alive in his at bat. 

Barton took the lead in the bottom of the 6th in the 7-inning contest when Ryan Busboom displayed some timely hitting as well. With runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs, Busboom drilled a single to center for the Cougars' 3rd and final hit of the day, scoring Slauter and Miller, who had reached on walks. That gave Barton a 3-2 lead, which stood up in the top of the 7th. Keith Picht earned the win for Barton, stranding 6 Hutch runners in the process. Picht allowed 7 hits in the game and walked just 1. He left a pair of runners standing on the bases in both the 1st and 5th innings. Picht improved to 2-2 with the good effort on the mound. Niccoli Loardi recorded the final 2 outs for his 4th save of the season.

The teams battled to another close contest in the 9-inning nightcap Saturday with the Blue Dragons platting a pair of in the top of the 9th, pounding out 4 hits in that inning – 4 of the 6 Hutch had the entire contest in a bit of a reversal from the opening game. Barton had 10 hits in the loss, this time stranding 8 base runners. Hutch also stranded 8 as Barton issued 8 passes on base on balls.

Barton played with a bit more cushion most of Sunday, taking a 3-0 to open the day. Hutch did score 4 in the 3rd but the Cougars answered right back with 4 of their own on the way to the win. Castagnini provided the big hit as Barton built its 3-0 lead, delivering a 2-out double in the 2nd down the left field line to score Ian Smith and Adam Geisick. The 3rd inning was the only inning Barton starter Robbie Van Cour ran into any trouble, giving up 4 hits in the inning and allowing 4 runs – 3 of them earned. Other than that the sophomore gave up just 2 other hits and struck out 7 in his 5 innings of work.

After Hutch had taken a 4-3 lead, the Cougars wasted little time in responding. Miller and Busboom started the bottom of the 3rd with back-to-back doubles and Michael Tennessen made it 3 straight hits to start the inning with a single to right-center to score Busboom and Barton as back on top to stay. Adam Smith also singled to make it 4 straight hits to the start inning, which ended in 4 runs and a 7-4 lead. Busboom ended with 3 hits and 3 RBI while Castagnini and Miller each had 2 hits. Castagnini scored 2 and drove in 2. Van Cour picked up the win to improve to 3-1 and Ian Smith tossed the final two innings for his 2nd save.

In the final contest of the weekend the two teams started like it would be a slugfest. Hutch led 4-3 after 3 innings of play – Barton scoring 2 of its 3 on a 2-run homer to left by Slauter in the 1st. The Cougars put 4 on the board in the 4th to retake the lead at 7-4 and never looked back. Slauter again provided a bit blow, driving a 2-run, 2-out double down the left field line to score Jordan Slade and Castagnini with Barton up 5-4. Tennessen started the inning with a triple to get Barton off and running.

The Blue Dragons stopped participating in the slugfest with the arrival of Taylor Davis in relief for the Cougars. Davis entered the game with two outs in the 3rd and pitched until the 9th. In that time he allowed just 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4 and keeping the Blue Dragons off the board to pick up the win and improve to 2-1. Slauter had a big game at the plate, going 4-for-5 and driving in 5 runs in the win. Slade scored 3 times and Barton pounded out 11 hits and 11 runs while leaving just 5 runners on base.

The Iowa Western contest Monday at 1 pm will start a 4-game, 3-day stretch for the Cougars – all at home. Otero College (Colo) will come to Lawson-Biggs the following day for a 3 pm doubleheader then return Wednesday for a single game at 3 pm as well.  

Notes
Busboom, Slauter and Castagnini had huge weekends at the plate for the Cougars. Busboom hit .538 with 7 hits and 5 RBI. Slauter had 6 hits – 3 extra bases, 5 RBI, and 4 runs scored. Castagnini had 5 hits, drove in 4 and scored 4.

Of the 16 outs Davis recorded in relief Sunday, 8 came on ground balls and 4 more by strike outs. Only 2 were fly ball outs as he kept the ball down with the wind blowing out to left. Twice Davis coaxed Hutch into a ground ball double play after the leading hitter reached base, giving him a total of 10 outs via the ground ball.

The Cougars return to West play March 19-20 with a trip to Pratt for the 4-game series. Currently Barton is in 3rd in the West along with Hutch and Garden City at 4-4. Butler is 5-3 and Dodge City is 3-1. Seward County, Cloud County, and Colby are all 2-2 in what is tightly bunched race right around the .500 mark early in the conference season.

The playoff standings and West standings will be different this year with Dodge City dropping to NJCAA Division II in the region. That means all of Dodge City's West games will not count toward the Region VI standings – including the Conquistadors 3 of 4 wins over Garden this past weekend.  

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonsports.com  

Next
Mar 14 – v Iowa Western 1 pm (non conference play at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)