Cougars drop season finale against Cowley; Region VI playoffs next
The Barton County Community College baseball team dropped its season finale, losing to Cowley County by a 9-7 score in non conference action at Lawson Field Wednesday night. Barton put together a furious rally over the last 3 innings but came up short in its comeback bid. The Cougars end the season with a 32-21 overall mark and will take the No. 2 seed from the West into the Region VI playoffs starting this weekend. Barton will host Independence (22-31), the No. 7 seed from the East, in a best 2-of-3 series this weekend at Lawson Field. A doubleheader will start at 2 pm Saturday with a 2 pm Sunday game as well if needed. Cowley (34-19) will be the No. 2 seed from the East in the event and will host Cloud County in the opening round series.
Highlights
The Cougars trailed 1-0 after a quick 4 innings of action before opening up things with a 4-run 5th inning to take a 5-0 lead. The lead reached 8-0 by the 7th inning of the 9-inning contest. That is when Barton began its rally.
The Cougars, who have rallied to win 4 home games in its final at bat this season, scored 3 times in the 7th inning to begin its comeback. It started with an error and a walk and cumulated with another error by the Cowley centerfield when he dropped a ball with 2 out and the bases loaded. All 3 runners scored on the error. Cowley pushed it 9-3 in the top of the 8th but the Cougars cut deeper into the lead in the bottom half of the inning. This time back-to-back singles and a hit batsman loaded the bases for the Cougars with no outs. A fly out by Anthony Dreiling scored David Wilson to make it 9-4. Ty Stivers, who had moved to 3rd on the fly out, scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-5 and later in the inning an Austin Holt single to deep short scored Tyler Rzepka to make it 9-6.
The Cougars continued their rally in the final inning with back-to-back singles to start the inning. Robbie Adams scored on a grounder to short to cut the lead to 9-7 with one out. A walk to Stivers put the tying run on base and on the 2nd out of the inning, those runners moved to 2nd and 3rd. But Dreiling couldn't get the big hit with the tying runners in scoring position and two outs as the Cougars comeback came up short.
Barton will be home this weekend against Independence for a best 2-of-3 series to start Region VI play and the right to advance to the Region VI Championships in Wichita next weekend. The games will be 9 inning contest, starting at 2 pm Saturday with a doubleheader.
Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu
Next
Sat, April 29 – v Independence, 2 pm (Region VI 1st round series at Lawson Field in Great Bend)