Barton Baseball and Dodge City split weekend series

Splitting Saturday's doubleheader, the Barton Community College and Dodge City Community College baseball teams split another pair of games Sunday at Lawson-Biggs Field to wrap up the four game series.  Dodge City scored runs in five of the first game's seven innings to win 8-4 but the Cougars salvaged the split with two three-run innings to win 8-6. The weekend leaves Barton in fifth place at 8-8 in Jayhawk conference play and 16-16 overall while Dodge City leaves town in the conference second spot at 12-8 and 22-10 overall.  The Cougars will step out of conference play Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. nine-inning contest hosting Hesston College before heading to Garden City on Friday for the weekend's four-game conference series. 

Dodge City put up three two-run innings while tacking on single runs in two separate innings in outhitting the Cougars 11-8.   A Barton sixth inning three-run rally cut the deficit to two but two runs in the Conquistador seventh put the game away.

Evan McDonald and Trevor Hughes led the eight hit attack each going 2-for-3 from the plate.  Dayton Pomeroy help spur the three-run sixth with a deep trip to left field scoring McDonald then one out later was followed by consecutive doubles by Hughes and Bryce Minor.

Jayme Lovelace took the loss dropping to 0-3 on the season going 3.1 innings giving up six hits five runs, a walk, and three strikeouts.

Game two looked anything like a pitcher's duel as the teams combined for seven runs in the first two innings.  Dodge took an early one run lead but the Cougars answered in the home half as Hughes connected on his fifth double of the series to drive in two then came home on Minor's triple to deep center.

Barton's 3-1 lead looked to stand up in the second as Barton starter Cody Brewer appeared to be escaping a two runner no out situation.  Getting the third batter on a strikeout and the next on a liner, a single followed by an error and hit batsman spurred a four run Conquistador inning to reclaim the lead at 5-3.   

Both pitchers held their own through the next three innings, Brewer exiting after four innings holding the Conquistadors to two hits in his last two innings.   

Trevor Turner help the Cougars close to within one in the fifth leading off the inning with a walk then stealing second base.  Two outs later McDonald delivered the needed single to draw to within a 5-4 deficit.

With reliever Jackson Rose, who came in for the top of the fifth, limiting the Conquistador bats and only allowing an unearned run in the seventh, the Cougars gave Rose the lead in the sixth with three runs. 

Capitalizing on Dodge City's only error of the game Hughes reached base leading off the inning followed by Minor's single to left center.   Not in the lineup for game two, Grant Watkins came off the bench blasting a shot to the left center gap for a triple reclaiming the Barton lead at 6-5.  Turner completed the scoring driving the second pitch he saw past the drawn-in infield increasing the lead to two.

Dodge City scored an unearned run in seventh to close within one but McDonald's leadoff triple in the home half set up Lance White's sacrifice fly giving Barton the two-run cushion.

Rose sent Dodge City down in order in the eighth giving way to Shane Adams to close out the ninth.  An infield error immediately gave the Conquistadors life but a full-out diving catch in the left center gap by Jacob Richardson robbed Dodge City of extra bases.  Three pitches later the Cougars rolled up their second double play of the game as White started the 5-4-3 rally killer to preserve the win and salvage the split.

Rose improved to 4-0 on the season while Adams recorded his fourth save of the season.

Despite getting outhit 13-8 by the Conquistadors, the Cougars made the most of their hits with five going for extra bases.  McDonald led the way with a 3-for-3 game including his seventh inning leadoff triple while Minor's triple was half of his 2-for-4 game.  Going 7-for-14 in the weekend series, Hughes finished 1-for-4 but drove in two runs while Watkins made the most of his one plate appearance with his two-RBI triple.