Barton wins nightcap to nab split with Hutchinson
The Barton County Community College baseball team finally found the familiar surroundings of Lawson Field to its liking in the 2nd game of the doubleheader Wednesday afternoon against Hutchinson. After winning the 1st 5 homes games of the season, Barton dropped three contests in a row before defeating the Blue Dragons, 2-1 in extra innings to break that streak. Barton lost the opener 14-4. The Cougars are now 14-13 overall and 6-6 in the West while Hutch is now 13-12 and 6-4.

Highlights
Mike McDonald pitched a strong 2nd game to lead the Cougars to the win. The freshman left-hander spun a 4-hit, 1-run game to pick up his 2nd win of the season. In the process, McDonald struck out a Barton season-high 11 batters in pitching all 8 innings, also a Barton season-high. Those numbers are career highs as well for the Wichita native.

McDonald's stellar effort allowed the Cougars to hang around long enough to score the game-winning run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th. Jordan Bruns, pinch running for Michael Stettinger who reached base on a single, scored the winning run on a wild pitch from Pat Hilbolt with two outs.

The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning when Wade Gubbels reached on an error and later scored in the inning. That held up until the top of the 5th Hutchinson executed a perfect hit and run, scoring a runner from 1st on a single.

The Blue Dragons used a big 2nd inning to grab control of the opener. Hutch scored 7 times in the inning to take an 8-1 lead. Barton had tied the game at 1-all in the bottom of the 1st when Andrew Small singled and scored on a throwing error by the Blue Dragons. Barton would fall behind 10-1 before scoring twice in the 4th and once in the 7th. The Cougars collected just 6 hits in the contest while Hutch pounded out 18.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu

Next
Sat., April 2 – at Dodge City, 1 pm (Jayhawk West doubleheader in Dodge City)