Barton picks up split with Seward on Lawson Field dedication day
The Barton County Community College baseball team split a pair of Jayhawk West games Sunday afternoon at Lawson Field with Seward County on the day the baseball field was officially dubbed Jimmy Lawson Field. Barton won the opener by a 12-4 score then took time to honor Lawson between games. In the nightcap, Seward picked up the win, 8-3, to give the teams a split. Barton also split games in Concordia with Cloud County Saturday. Barton is now 23-20 and 13-13 in the West. Seward is 14-8 in the West and 27-19 overall.
Highlights
Barton used a 9-run 3rd inning to pick up the win in the opener Sunday afternoon. The Cougars trailed 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 3rd when the bats got active. Andrew Small, who had a big day for Barton, started the inning with a single, opening up the floodgates. The Cougars did it one run at time with the exception of 2-run single by Wade Gubbles. Other than that, the Cougars scored runs on RBI by Mark Stoltz, Eric Whinery, Matt Coatman, Troy Spahn, Brent Biggs, Small, and Robbie Adams.
Barton pushed the lead to 12-2 with a pair of runs in the 4th inning. Andrew Giambrone and Small each drove in runs as Small had a 4-for-4 opener with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Coatman had 3 hits for the Cougars in the win and drove in 2 as well. Ronnie Morales went the distance to get the win for the Cougars. He allowed just 1 walk and three earned runs to improve to 5-2 on the season.
In the 2nd game, Seward took control of the contest with a 4-run 2nd inning and pushed the lead to 8-1 with a 3-run 4th inning. Biggs cut the lead to 8-3 in the 5th inning with a 2-run homer scoring Giambrone. It was the 1st career homer for Biggs. That is how the game ended. Biggs ended the game with 2 hits, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored for the Cougars in the loss.
Saturday in Concordia, Barton got a great effort from Mike McDonald. McDonald went 6 scoreless innings as the Cougars won the opener by a 9-0 score. McDonald struck out 6 as he improved to 4-2 on the season. Barton scored 4 runs in the 2nd inning to grab the lead with Coatman and Biggs each driving in 2 runs in the inning. Giambrone ended the game with 4 hits with Biggs and Coatman each banging out 3 hits. Biggs drove in 3 in the win.
In the nightcap loss at Concordia to Cloud County, 8-6, Barton fell behind 4-0 in the 1st inning and spent the rest of the game in pursuit of the Thunderbirds. Barton cut it 4-3 with a pair of runs in the 4th inning. Biggs' single drove in Jordan Bruns and Coatman to make it 4-3. But the Cougars gave up 4 unearned runs in the 5th thanks to a pair of errors by the Cougars defense, giving Cloud an 8-3 lead. Barton added 3 in the 6th to make it 8-6 but that is as close as the Cougars could get. Biggs drove in 3 to lead Barton and Coatman had 3 hits and scored 3 runs in the loss.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu
Next
Wed., April 30 – at Hutchinson, 2 pm (Jayhawk West doubleheader at Hobbart-Detter Field in Hutchinson)