Cougars split West opener with Cloud County
The Barton County Community College baseball team is getting used to splitting twinbills this season. For the 9th time in 11 twinbills, the Cougars left the ball park with a split, this time against Cloud County in the West opener at Cougar Fields. Barton won the 1st game 5-2 then fell 7-5 in the 2nd game to give Barton a 13-9 overall record and 1-1 mark in the West. Cloud is now 15-10 and 2-2.
Highlights
The Cougars rode another strong pitching effort from Ryan Phillips in the opener for the 5-2 win. Phillips took a shutout into the 7th and final inning of action before the Thunderbirds scored 2 unearned runs for the final margin.
Phillips struck out 10 in his 7 innings of work, hitting 90 mph on the radar gun with several pro scouts in attendance. The sophomore left-hander who has signed to play at the University of Nebraska next season, allowed 4 hits and walked just 2 batters to improve to 4-1 for the season.
The Cougars took a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning as Matt Hafner and Steve Elson started the inning off with singles. Jeff Christy doubled in Hafner then later scored on a Jerry Cook single for the 2-0 lead. That is where the game stayed until the Cougars scored 3 more times in the 5th. Cook picked up another RBI by knocking in Elson and Andrew Small drove in 2 runs with a double.
In the 2nd game, the Cougars fell behind early and spent the rest of the game playing catch-up. Cloud scored twice in the 1st, once in the 2nd and three more times in the 3rd to build a 6-0 lead on the Cougars. Barton finally got on the board in the bottom of the 3rd when Elson flied out to score Brooks Clark. Barton trailed 7-1 when they made a furious rally in the bottom of the 5th. The Cougars scored 4 times in the inning, highlighted by a Wes Renfro double that scored Elson and Hafner. But that would be the final runs for Barton as they fell 7-5.
Stats
Stats can be found at the Barton County Website at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Sat., March 27 – at Seward County, 1 pm (West doubleheader at Liberal)
Sun., March 28 – v Hutch, 1 pm (West doubleheader at Cougar Fields)