Barton splits games with Lions; prepare for West action
The Barton County Community College baseball team settled for a split Monday afternoon at Cougar Fields with the Brown Mackie Lions. Barton dropped the opener by a 13-9 margin, then exploded for 17 runs in the nightcap for a 17-4 win to garner the split. The Cougars are now 12-8 overall this season with the conference opener slated for Wednesday when Cloud County comes to town.

Highlights
Barton held a 6-3 lead in the opener until Brown Mackie put 7 runs on the board in the 4th inning. The Lions 7 times on 6 hits in the inning and the Cougars were playing catch-up the remainder of the way. That 10-6 Lion lead grew to 11-6 before the Cougars began to rally in the 6th inning. Barton put 3 runs across in the bottom of the 6th – all with 2 outs. Jeff Christy doubled in Wes Renfro and Steve Elson to make it an 11-9 contest, but that would be as close as Barton would get.

In the nightcap, the Cougars wasted very little time in taking control of the contest. Barton put up 6 runs in the bottom of the opening inning highlighted by a 3-run homer by Andrew Small. The Lions cut the lead to 6-1 before Barton again exploded for 11 runs in the bottom of the 3rd. This time a lot help from Brown Mackie allowed the Cougars to post the 11 runs. The Lions walked 5 Cougars, hit another and threw 3 wild pitches in the inning. Giambrone and Elson each had triples early in the inning and Elson added a 2-run double later in the inning. From there, it was a matter of just getting to the 5th inning and getting the run-rule, which ended at 17-4.

Stats
Stats can be found at the Barton County Website at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
Wed., March 24 – v Cloud County, 4 pm (West doubleheader at Cougar Fields)