Barton sweeps Southeast; loses at No 14 Cowley

Barton sweeps Southeast; loses at No 14 Cowley

The Barton Community College baseball team remained hot over the weekend, sweeping past Southeast Community College out of Nebraska in four games at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend. The Cougars ran their winning to 7 games with the sweep but saw that end at No 14 Cowley College Wednesday night in Arkansas City. The Cougars fell 8-5 to the Tigers in a rematch of Barton's win at Lawson-Biggs last week. Barton is now 35-17 on the season. Southeast fell to 8-19 with the losses and Cowley improved to 38-11 with its win over Barton. Barton will be at home this weekend to wrap up the regular season. Dodge City will come to Lawson-Biggs for a 4-game Jayhawk West series Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm.

Highlights
Barton had its chances to win at Cowley but could not come up with that big hit at City Ball Field where Cowley has now won 15 of its last 16 home games. Barton still has a chance in its final at bat despite committing 5 errors and stranding a staggering 16 runners on base.

The teams traded the lead the first several innings before Cowley took the lead for good in the 6th with 4 unearned runs. The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd when Federico Castagnini drew a bases loaded walk to score Michael Tennessen. Barton made it 2-1 in the 3rd when Tanner Carpenter singled in Ryan Busboom and again took the lead in the 5th with a pair of runs. Carpenter again singled in Tennessen and Clayton Garland scored on a ground out to give the Cougars a 4-3 lead.

But what turned out be a costly 1-out bases empty error followed by four hits by the Tigers gave Cowley 4 unearned runs and a 7-4 lead. That lead grew to 8-4 as Barton left 2 on in the 7th and 2 more in the 8th. The Cougars got on in the 9th. Carpenter started it with a 1-out walk and Adam Geisick reached on an error to put the Cougars in business. Jordan Slade singled in Carpenter and moved Geisick to 3rd to make it 8-5 with the tying run coming to the plate. But that would be the end of the Cougar rally as Barton left its 15th and 16th runners stranded on base.

For the most part Barton cruised through the weekend series with Southeast in non conference play at Cougar Fields. Barton won Friday evening by 8-1 and 10-0 counts then returned to sweep the Storm Saturday 7-6 and 9-4.

Nathan Miller drove in 4 in the opener Friday on two hits including a double. Tennessen had 3 hits and 3 RBI in the win while Mitch Slauter scored 3 times. Tayler Davis went the distance in the 5-inning run-rule contest allowing just 3 hits to improve to 6-1. The Cougars banged out 11 hits in Friday's nightcap. Slade had 3 hits and scored 3 times. Ian Smith picked up the win allowing 5 hits and 2 walks over 6 innings of work to improve to 3-1.

Saturday Barton had to go extra innings in the opener then come from behind for the win. Each team scored 3 times in the 2nd before heading into extra innings tied at 5-all. In the first extra frame Southeast scored a run to take a 6-5 lead on the Cougars. But – as Barton did in all 3 innings the Storm scored – the Cougars answered back with run in the bottom of the inning. Adam Smith tied the game when he singled in Tennessen with 1 out then scored on a Geisick single to right center with 2 outs for the win.

In the final game of the series, Barton jumped to a 7-0 lead after 3 innings and coasted in for the 9-4 win. Ben French picked up the win going 5.1 innings and allowing 4 hits and just 1 walk to go with 7 strikeouts. Carpenter drove in 3 on a pair of hits for Barton at the plate.

Notes
Barton will more than likely be the No 4 seed from the West in Region VI playoffs the opening weekend of May. The Cougars have closed out the region portion of the regular season with an 18-10 record. The games against Dodge City do not count to playoff seeding. Barton could slip up to 3rd or even 2nd but would need Garden and/or Colby to lose 3 times this weekend. Garden is at Butler and Colby hosts Pratt. There is also a good chance Barton will return to Ark City for post season play.

Some numbers from the season so far – Barton has yet to win a game scoring less 2 runs or less (0-8). The Cougars are a perfect 30-0 when leading after 6 innings and 27-3 when leading after 5 innings. When Barton scores 1st it is 21-6. The first inning has been a key for Barton this year – if the Cougars are able to get out of the 1st inning with a lead they are 15-3. Barton is 8-8 when trailing after one inning of play. Barton is 12-6 when tied after the opening inning. 

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonsports.com 

Next
April 30/May 2 – v Dodge 1 pm (4-game Jayhawk West series at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)

Check out Barton Baseball Online at www.bartonsports.com