Barton wins 2 of 3 against Otero; Warren closing in on milestones

Barton wins 2 of 3 against Otero; Warren closing in on milestones

The Barton Community College baseball team took 2 of 3 in a non conference series with Otero (Colo) College during midweek play at Lawson-Biggs Field. The teams split a doubleheader Tuesday then Barton won the rubber match on Wednesday. Barton is now 12-10 overall this season and will get back into Jayhawk West action this weekend. Otero leaves with a 19-12 record. Barton will head to Pratt this weekend for West action for the first time in two weeks as conference play resumes around the West. The wins moved Barton Coach Mike Warren to 799 career wins at Barton and 898 wins overall.  

Highlights
Barton won the opener in the series by an 8-4 score after building an 8-0 lead then holding off the Rattlers in the final innings. Otero bounced back for a 2-1 extra inning win in the 2nd game, scoring a run in the top of the 8th. Barton won the scheduled 9-inning the following day but did so in 7 innings after building an 18-8 lead for the run-rule win.

The Cougars built a 4-0 lead in opener Tuesday thanks to a 3-run 3rd highlighted by a Nathan Miller 3-run bases-clearing double down the right field line. Barton added 4 more runs in the 5th inning as Barton pounded out 5 hits in the inning – all but one a single. The inning started off with 4 straight hits. Jordan Slade single as did Federico Castagnini, Mitch Slauter drove in Slade with the only extra base hit of the inning on a double. Miller singled in Castagnini with the 4th straight hit to start the 5th. Clayton Garland latter added an RBI single with 2 outs. The Cougars did run into some trouble in the 6th giving up 4 runs but Niccoli Loardi came in to get Barton out of the 6th then pitched the 7th for his 5th save. Keith Picht earned the win in his scheduled 2 innings of hitless work to improve to 3-2.

The 2nd game was a pitching battle with the teams combining for 5 hits. Otero scored a run in its first at bat off Barton starter Ben French, who allowed no hits but walked 3 in his 2 scheduled innings. Barton evened the score at 1-all in the 2nd without a hit as the Rattlers committed 2 errors in the inning. That is where the game stayed as Ben Minnihan and AJ Green of Barton went out-for-out with Otero's Kenan Gooden. Otero finally broke thru on Green in the top of the 8th. Minnihan and Green combined for 6 innings, 3 hits and the 1 run. Gooden, meanwhile, went all 8 innings for Otero, allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8 Cougars.

Barton closed out the series with a much greater output off its bats, thanks in part to a 25+ mph wind blowing almost straight out Wednesday. Otero put up a 5-spot in the 2nd inning to grab an early 5-0 lead and led 6-1 heading into the bottom of the 4th when the Barton bats exploded. Barton banged out 5 runs in the 4th, 6 in the 5th and 6 more in the 6th on the way to 18-8 run-rule win. The Cougars banged out 16 hits with no one getting more than 2 as Barton spreads the hits around. Slade ended with 4 RBI, Slauter 3 and Ryan Busboom 3. Michael Tennessen hit a home run in the contest.

Notes
Coach Warren will have a chance to pick up his 900th overall win at the place he notched his 1st win when the Cougars travel to Pratt this weekend. He started his coaching career at Pratt, going 37-48 in his 3 seasons with the Beaver from 1979-1981.

Slade had 5 hits in the series, going 5-of-10 with 5 runs scored and 4 RBI. That raised the leadoff hitters average nearly 40 points to .253 on the season as the sophomore begins to knock the around the park. Slade had a double and a triple. Miller drove in 5 runs on 3-of-6 hitting and Slauter continued to swing a hot bat driving in 4 and scoring 4. Slauter is hitting .386 this spring with 21 RBI and 20 runs scored in 22 games.

Coach Warren will be going against his former player and assistant coach this weekend at Stanion Field. Ryan Schmidt played for the Cougars and was an assistant for Skip before taking over the Pratt program 3 years ago.  

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonsports.com  

Next
Mar 19-20 – at Pratt 1 pm (Jayhawk West series at Stanion Field in Pratt)