Cougars knock off Cowley in non-league action; split games at Garden
The Barton County Community College baseball team earned a win over Jayhawk East leading Cowley County Wednesday night at Cougars fields, out-slugging the Tigers to a 15-7 win. That came on the heels of a split Tuesday at Garden City in Jayhawk West play. Garden won the opener 7-2 and Barton won the nightcap 10-2. Barton is now 33-18 overall and 20-10 in the West. Barton and Hutchinson are battling for the No. 2 spot in the West with Hutchinson now 22-9. Barton must sweep Pratt Saturday and have Hutch lose to Garden this weekend in a single game to pass the Blue Dragons for 2nd place. Cowley is 34-17 overall.
Highlights
The non-conference battle between the Cougars and Tigers Wednesday turned into an offensive battle as both teams rested their top pitchers for conference action. The Cougars pitching depth proved the difference, allowing Cowley just 1 run the final 6 innings of the 9-inning contest.
The 1st 3 innings saw a lot of runs as Cowley took a 6-5 lead on the Cougars. But when Justin Randa took the mound to start the 4th inning, the Tiger offense lost some potency. The only run Randa gave up his 3 innings of work was a solo homer to Brian Freeman in the 5th. The Cougars took the lead on Cowley in the bottom of the 5th when Andrew Small belted a 3-run homer. Small's 2nd homer of the season drove in Harrison Harber and Jerry Cook. Barton added 2 more runs in the 6th inning as Jeff Christy tripled in Wes Renfro and scored on a single by Cook.
The Cougars continued to put runs on the board in the 7th inning, scoring 4 more times highlighted by a 2-run single by Renfro that scored Andrew Giambrone and Marcus Lara. Renfro scored Giambrone with a triple in the 8th to complete the scoring.
Randa allowed just the 1 run in his 3 innings of work to pick up the win. Brian Knipplemeyer pitched the 7th and 8th, striking out the last 4 batters he faced. Brendon Bump threw the 9th to complete the win for Barton County.
The Cougars weren't as fortunate Tuesday, dropping the opening game to Garden City by a 7-2 count. Barton took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 5th inning but the Broncbusters put up 4 runs in the 5th and 3 more in the 6th to get the win.
Barton pulled away from the Broncbusters during the middle innings with 8 runs. The Cougars scored 4 in the 3rd – highlighted by a triple from Steve Edlefsen that drove in 2 runs. Barton added 2 runs in each the 4th and 5th innings to give AJ Knight the win. Knight improved to 5-2 with his victory.
Stats
Stats can be found at the Barton County Website at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Sat., May 8 – v Pratt, 1 pm (West doubleheader at Cougar Fields)