Cougars sweep Colby in West action
The Barton County Community College baseball team kept themselves in the thick of the Jayhawk West race with a sweep of Colby Thursday afternoon at Lawson Field in Great Bend. Barton won the opener by a 10-1 score then took the nightcap 8-4. The contests were rescheduled games from Wednesday when wet conditions kept the teams from playing. Barton is now 19-14 overall this year and 11-7 in the West, which puts them in a battle for a place among the top half of the West and a home playoff game later in the year. Colby fell to 15-18 and 4-10.
Highlights
Barton jumped out to an early lead in the opener and never looked back. While Colby played a game of kick the can in the 2nd the Cougars took advantage. After taking a 1-0 lead in the opening inning on an unearned run, Barton put up 6 unearned runs in the 2nd inning for a 7-0 lead. The 1st 3 Barton batters reached base on errors by the Colby middle infield, setting off the big inning. Andrew Small and Chris Evans each had RBI doubles in the inning while Andrew Giambrone drove in a pair on a single.
Small had another double in the 4th and later scored on Michael Stettinger's double. Cougars added 2 in the 5th when Giambrone scored Jordan Bruns and Brent Biggs. That was more than enough for Mike McDonald, who allowed just 1 run and 3 hits in 6 innings of work to pick up his 2nd straight win and improve to 3-2 on the season.
In the nightcap, Barton took a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning as Biggs singled in Robbie Adams and Giambrone doubled in Bruns and Eric Whinery. But Barton 3 errors allowed. Colby to score 3 unearned runs in the top of the 3rd to even the game at 3-all.
That is where the game stayed until bottom of the 6th when pinch runner Troy Spahn put his speed on display, scoring from 2nd on an infield single by Biggs. Biggs hit a slow bouncer to 1st and beat the throw from the Colby 1st baseman to covering pitcher. Meanwhile Spahn, pinch running for Robbie Adams who walked to start the inning, never stopped running from 2nd and scored easily. Tino McFerran, who had struggled on the day going just 1-for-7 until the 6th, added a pair of runs with a single that scored Whinery and Biggs. Barton added mores runs when Stettinger and Spahn walked with the bases loaded.
Nate Smith picked up the win in relief for the Cougars, getting out of a 2-out, 2-on jam in the 6th, then finishing up giving up a single run in the 7th inning to improve to 3-1 on the season. Brett McBride started the contest, allowing just the 3 unearned runs.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu
Next
Sat., April 2 – at Pratt, 1 pm (Jayhawk West doubleheader at Stanion Field in Pratt)