Barton wins 3 of 4 against Cloud to set up big final West weekend for Cougars; Smith sets career save record
The Barton Community College baseball team won a Jayhawk West series 3-1 for the 3rd time in the last 4 series. This time it was Cloud County the Cougars took 3 of 4 from, splitting games Saturday before sweeping the Thunderbirds Monday. During the win in the opener, Drew Smith broke Brad Schmidt's record for career saves at Barton with 17th over 2 seasons. Barton also took a pair of non conference games from McCook (Neb) Tuesday to improve its record to 24-19 on the season. The Cougars will be in their final West series this weekend when they travel to Butler to take on the Grizzlies. The rest of the conference has one more weekend but Barton's bye date falls on that final weekend. The Cougars are currently 16-12 in the West tied with Butler for that fourth and final home playoff spot in the West. Butler is 14-10. Close behind is Seward at 13-11. Three teams lead the West with a 16-8 mark – Colby, Garden City, and Hutchinson.
Highlights
The Cougars won the opening game of a West series for the 1st time this season with a 6-2 win over Cloud Saturday. Barton got great pitching from starter Matt Robertson, who went into the 7th, giving up just 2 unearned runs on 4 hits to improve to 3-4. A pair of errors and one hit gave Cloud 2 runs in the top of the 1st. Over the next 5-plus innings of work, Robertson allowed just 3 more base runners and sat down the T-Birds in order on 3 occasions. Barton scored single runs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th to take a 3-2 lead in the game.
Blaine Clark doubled in David Allbritton in the 2nd and Kensley Dukes tripled and scored on a passed ball in the 3rd to tie the game. Barton took a 3-2 lead when Clark scored on a fielder's choice in the 4th. The Cougars opened up some space in the 6th with 3 more runs.
The Cougars weren't able to sweep the opening day of the series for the 1st time this year as Cloud bounced back for a 7-3 win. The Cougars and T-Birds traded the lead but a 3-run 7th by Cloud put some separation between the two teams as Cloud scored 6 runs in the final 3 innings. Barton could collect just 5 hits in the loss.
The Cougars came to play Monday. Spencer Blades continued his lockdown pitching, limiting Cloud to just 4 hits and no walks in 5-plus innings of work. Blades gave up just 2 runs – 1 earned. That was enough for the Barton bats who scored 6 times in its final 3 at bats. Barton took a 2-0 lead in the 4th on RBI singles from Kent Urban and Austin Messerli. A Dustin Phelps single to score Bryce Wells made it 3-1 after 5 innings. The Cougars added 3 more in the 6th – 2 on a bases-loaded single by Clark to score Allbritton and Urban.
Blades went 5 1/3 for the win to improve to 5-1 on the year and lower his ERA to 3.64. He now leads the team in strikeouts with 45 – 1 ahead of Michael Cotter with 44. Landon Fall has 41. In his last 4 outings Blades has not allowed more than 1 earned run, allowing just 4 total runs over that span. He has struck out 20 and given up just 11 hits during those 20-plus innings of work. Blades is 4-0 during that stretch. Drew Smith picked up the save for the Cougars, throwing the final 1 2/3 innings allowing just 1 hit. It was the 9th save of the season for Smith – just 2 shy of the school record held by Brad Schmidt in 1987. Nathan Hedrick had 10 in 2006. It was Smith's 17th career save, breaking Schmidt's record of 16 over 2 seasons.
The Cougars made quick work of Cloud in the final game, scoring 5 times in the 2nd and 7 times in the 3rd for a 12-0 win in 5 innings. Andrew Hawkins tossed the shortened complete game shutout, allowing just 4 hits and no walks. Hugo Hernandez drove in 3 runs on the game while Dustin Phelps added 2 RBI. Barton scored the 12 runs on just 7 hits as the Thunderbirds committed 3 errors, walked 5 Cougars and hit 2 more.
Barton got a pair of great pitching efforts from Landon Fall and Drew Martineau Tuesday in its non-conference sweep of McCook 6-2 and 9-2. Fall threw 5 innings of 2-run baseball in the opener and Shawn Devan finished the final 2 for his 1st save. David Allbritton drove in 4 in the win and Austin Messerli hit a solo homer. Martineau went the distance in the 2nd game allowing just 4 hits and 1 earned run with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk. Charles Trottier drove in 3 while Clark and Lance Woltemath each added 2 RBI. Clark was 3-for-4 at the plate with 3 runs scored as well. Barton pounded out 16 hits in the win.
The Cougars will travel to El Dorado this weekend in a weekend full of big series in the West. In addition to the Barton-Butler battle, league co-leaders Colby and Garden will face each as well. Seward and Hutch also meet up over a weekend that will go a long way to determining the final standings in the West.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
April 18-19 – at Butler 1 pm (Jayhawk West series at McDonald Park in El Dorado)