Cougars cure offensive woes with sweep of Friends JV
The Barton County Community College baseball team finally broke free of its chains on offense Thursday afternoon at Lawson Field with a sweep of the Friends JV in a break from conference action. Barton, which had scored just 4 runs in the previous 4 games, busted out with a 10-run 5th inning the opener for a 10-4 win over the Falcons. The Cougars completed the sweep with a 10-0 shutout. Barton is now 21-18 on the season.
Highlights
Barton struggled at the plate for the 1st 4 innings and found themselves trailing the Friends JV by a 3-0 score. The 5th started with an Eric Whinery walk and Jordan Bruns single. Matt Coatman then caught the Friends left fielder playing too shallow and drove in Whinery and Bruns with a triple and later scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 3-all.
The Cougars next 3 batters all reached and scored for Barton as Andrew Giambrone, Brent Biggs, and Andrew Small all reached base and scored to give Barton a 6-3 lead. Bruns later drove in a pair with a single as the Cougars put up double digits in the inning. Small had 3 hits in the game for Barton and added a pair of RBI as well. Brock Nehls picked up the win in relief, going 1 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball.
In the nightcap, the Cougars started scoring from the onset. Barton put up two runs in the opening inning – both unearned – as they took advantage of a Friends error. Logan Smith doubled in Biggs and Chris Evans for the 2-0 lead. Barton added 4 more in the 2nd with some help of 2 more Friends errors, taking a 6-0 lead. Barton came close to taking the 10-run lead in the 4th, scoring 3 times to make it 9-0. In the inning Smith, Robbie Adams and Mark Stoltz each drove in runs.
Barton won the game in the bottom of the 5th when Giambrone led off the inning with a triple and scored on a Biggs single to center. Starter Luke Kramer threw his longest stint of the season, going 4 innings of shutout baseball. Kramer had thrown just two innings prior to his stint – both scoreless. He has not given up a run in 6 innings of work and is 1-0.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu
Next
Sat., April 16 – at Cloud County, 1 pm (Jayhawk West doubleheader in Concordia)