A five run inning broke open Saturday's non-conference contest at Lawson-Biggs Field as the Barton Community College baseball team scored in four of their final at-bat frames to win 9-0 over Hesston College.
Now 31-18 on the year, the Cougars wind up the regular season with a four-game series versus Dodge City Community College. Sitting fifth in the conference race at 15-13, Barton will travel to Dodge City on Thursday for the opening doubleheader at 3:00 p.m. before welcoming the ninth place Conquistadors on Saturday in a 1:00 p.m. twin bill. Hesston falls to 11-24 with their second straight loss to the Cougars as Barton won Thursday's meeting 10-3.
The Cougars' pitching staff of Tanner Howe and Clay Wesbrooks held the Larks to just three hits with a combined six strikeouts. Howe, the program's pitching appearance leader, took the mound for his 49th time as a Cougar throwing an efficient seven innings of work improving to 2-1 on the year with Wesbrooks sending Hesston down in order the final two frames.
Nolan Riley, recently announced as one of two recipients of the Barton Outstanding Graduate award, led the Cougars with three RBIs coming on three hits including a fourth inning single driving home Noah Geekie's one-out double.
Geekie also had three hits in the game, adding a single in the Cougars' five run sixth before putting the scoring touches on the game with his eleventh double of the year driving home Harrison Denk in the eighth.
Barton' blew open the game in the sixth behind five hits, taking advantage of two Lark errors along the way. Chandler Bloomer and Riley each delivered RBI hits with two runs scoring on Tyler Bandiera's hard hit ball against a drawn-in infield causing the second error of the frame.
Andrew Stewart closed out the outburst with his first hit of the contest to drive in the fifth run of the inning before two innings later blasting a triple through a stiff north wind on a hopper off the left field wall. Denk followed by yanking a hard chopper past the Lark first baseman to easily plate Stewart for the Cougars' final run.
Riley drove in his third of the contest to plate Barton's solo sixth inning run to score Bloomer's drawn walk.