Barton drops home games against Cloud
The Barton County Community College baseball team had not tasted defeat at home this season, winning its first 5 home games of the season. That all came to an end Thursday as Cloud County swept the Cougars on their home field, winning 6-0 and 4-3 on the chilly, overcast day. The losses even Barton out in Jayhawk West play at 4-4 and 12-11 overall. Cloud is now 5-5 in West action and 11-14 overall.
Highlights
The Cougars led much of the 2nd game and didn't trail until the final inning the loss. Barton finally scored its first runs of the day in the 2nd inning of the nightcap when Matt Coatman singled in Troy Morgan. Morgan had reached on an error and scored on the opposite field single by Coatman. Andrew Giambroni made it 2-0 later in the inning when he doubled in Coatman.
After Cloud evened the score at 2-all in the top of 3rd, Giambrone drove in his 2nd run of the game, this time scoring Morgan on a single. Morgan reached on a 2-out bunt single, stole 2nd and scored on Giambrone's line drive to center. But like in the 4th inning, Cloud responded to the Cougars run with one of its own to tie the game at 3-all in the top of the 5th.
The game stayed tied at 3-all until the 7th inning when Cloud executed a double steal for the lead run. Adam Elm stole 2nd on the play and when Eric Whinery made a delayed throw to 2nd Kyle Peter took for home. The return throw came to Whinery but Peter slid under the tag for the 4-3 lead and the win. Nate Smith took the loss in relief, giving up the 1 run in 2 innings of work.
In the opener, the Cougars never found home plate with a base runner as Cloud County blanked Barton by a 6-0 score. The Cougars could only muster four hits in the loss. The lone extra base hit for Barton was a double by Michael Stettinger. The shutout was the first time this season Barton has been shutout and just the 2nd time in 12 games Barton has been held below 7 runs.
Justin Randa took the loss, allowing just 7 hits but yielding 6 runs – 3 of which were earned. Randa, who struck out 5 and walked 2, evened his record at 1-1.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu
Next
Sat., March 25 – at Seward County, 1 pm (Jayhawk West doubleheader in Liberal)