Barton takes 3 of 4 at Butler; beat No 10 Cowley

The Barton Community College baseball team took 3 of 4 games in Jayhawk West play over the weekend in El Dorado then beat Cowley in a midweek contest Tuesday night at home. Barton split with Butler the opening day of the weekend series then swept the Grizzlies on day two to improve to 18-10 in the West. The Cougars knocked off No 10 ranked Cowley Tuesday night 6-1 to improve 31-16 on the season. Barton will have its bye week in West play this weekend but will host Southeast Community College (Neb) Friday and Saturday in doubleheader action at Lawson-Biggs Field. 

Highlights
The scoring kept getting higher and higher as the weekend progressed at McDonald Stadium in El Dorado. Barton won a good pitching battle in the opener by a 6-4 margin then lost the 2nd game Saturday 10-7. The offense continued to pick up steam on Sunday with Barton winning the opener 12-8 and it exploded the final game as Barton won by a football score – 24-12. The losses sent Butler to 10-14 in the West and 21-22 overall.

Keith Picht threw a solid game for Barton in the opener, holding Butler to 3 runs – 1 earned – over 5.2 innings of work. But he was matched nearly pitch for pitch by Butler starter Taylor Berthusen. However the Cougars were able to break through against the Grizzlies bullpen in the 7th inning for the win. Down 3-2 heading into the top of the 7th Coach Mike Warren pulled all the right moves to tie the game. Dylan Monroe pinch hit with one out and delivered with a single. Corey Sager relieved Monroe at 1st as a pinch runner and stole 2nd. A Jordan Slade single to center scored Sager and evened the game at 3-all. But Barton wasn't done yet. After a Federico Castagnini walk, Mitch Slauter singled in Slade to give Barton the lead. Nathan Miller followed with another RBI single and Ryan Busboom drove in a run on a sac fly as Barton built a 6-3 lead. Niccoli Loardi threw the final 1.1 innings for Barton to pick up the win.

Barton built a 7-1 lead in the 2nd game Saturday only to see it disappear. A 5-run 5th highlighted by a Busboom 3-run homer gave the Cougars that 7-1 advantage. It was his 2nd homer of the day after Miller and Busboom went back-to-back to start the 4th inning. The Grizzlies scored 3 in each of the next 3 innings. Butler cut it to 7-4 with 3 in the bottom of the 5th, tied it in the bottom of the 6th and took a 10-7 lead in the bottom of the 8th.

The Cougars led most of the opener on Sunday but the two teams kept it close for the 1st 5 innings. Busboom banged out another 3-run homer in 3rd to give Barton a 6-1 lead. Butler cut that led to 6-4 in the bottom of the inning, tied it in the 4th and took a 7-6 lead in the 5th. In the 6th Barton strung together four 2-out hits to go with a pair of walks putting 6 straight batters on base to produce 6 runs. Jordan Slade doubled in pinch runner Clayton Garland to tie the game. A Castagnini single and walk to Slauter loaded the bases for Miller, who came through with a bases clearing double and a 10-7 lead. Busboom drew a base on balls and Michael Tennessen capped the string with a double to score Miller and Busboom and give Barton a 12-7 lead. Kyle Leroy picked up the win in relief – retiring the only batter he faced to get out of the 5th before the Barton bats exploded. His is now 2-2 on the year.

Things got crazy in the finale. Butler scored 7 in the bottom of the 1st to take a 7-2 lead but Barton responded back with 6 in the 2nd – capped by a Slauter grand slam to center – for an 8-7 lead and the slugfest was on for the Cougars. Barton would pound out 22 hits – 8 extra bases. Slauter hit 2 homers in the game and drove in 8 runs on 3 hits. Slade and Castagnini each drove in 4 runs with Slade getting 4 hits and scoring 5 times. The Cougar leadoff hitter had a double and a triple. Castagnini scored 4 times. Slade, Castagnini and Slauter – the top 3 in the order for Barton – combined to go 10-16, with 16 RBI and 12 runs scored in the game.

Drew Martineau picked up the win in relief as he came in and shut down Butler after the 7-run 1st. Martineau threw 4.1 innings of 1-run baseball while Barton was getting him a 15-8 lead. The sophomore struck out 2 and walked none to improve to 2-1 on the year.

The Cougars played midweek again and earned a 6-1 win over Cowley Tuesday at Lawson-Biggs. Barton will return the game next week when it travels to Arkansas City for a single game at Cowley. The Cougars scored twice in the 1st inning against the Tigers Tuesday. Castagnini singled, stole 2nd and scored on a Slauter single to right. Slauter then stole 2nd and scored on a Busboom single to right for the 2-0 lead. Cowley answered back with a single run in the 2nd to make it 2-1. That is where the game stayed until the bottom of the 8th when Barton broke it open. The Cougars scored 4 times on just 3 hits thanks to 3 Tiger errors in the inning. Slauter doubled to start the inning and scored on a Miller single to right before the Tigers started committing errors and helping the Cougar cause. Garland had a 2-run single in the inning to score Miller and Busboom. Ashton Sivigliano picked up the win with his scheduled 3 innings to start the game to improve to 2-0. Five Cougar pitchers scattered 9 hits and allowed just a single run while striking out 8 and walking only 2.

Notes
The Cougars played Tuesday night without the services of Coach Mike Warren. Coach Warren was with his family after the passing of his father Dave Warren Monday at the age of 84. Dave coached Mike during his baseball days in high school. The duo helped lead Winfield High School to a state title in 1972. He is a member of the Kansas Collegiate Officials Hall of Fame and the Greater Wichita Officials Hall of Fame as well as the Southwestern College Hall of Fame. Assistant Coach Brent Biggs stepped in as head coach in his absence.

The Cougars are done with the region portion of their schedule with the bye week this weekend in West play and the final series against Dodge City. Dodge is playing D-II this year and those games don't count toward Region VI playoff seeding. The Cougars are in the house at 18-10. Seward County is in position to be the 1 seed from the West with an 18-6 region record and just 4 games left to play – at Pratt (3-17) this weekend. Colby (14-6) also has just 6 losses but has 2 series left – at Hutch (9-11) and at home against Pratt (3-17). Garden is 12-8 with two series left as well – v Cloud (4-16) and at Butler (10-14). The top 2 teams will host a 4-team sub regional to open post season action. If the Cougars don't slip into the top 2, chances are they will be headed to Neosho or Cowley to open the playoffs.

Four Cougars had 7 hits in the Butler series as the Barton bats had their best weekend of the year in the hitter friendly park. Busboom went 7-14 with 3 homers, 9 RBI and 6 runs scored. Slauter was 7-15 with 2 homers, 10 RBI and 9 runs scored. Slade went 7-17 with 6 RBI and 10 runs scored while Miller finished 7-19 with 9 RBI. The Cougars pounded out 54 hits and scored 49 runs in the series. Baton hit .383 as a team with 17 extra base hits. Barton hit 6 homers in the series. The Cougars came in with 11 total home runs all year. 

Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonsports.com 

Next
April 22-23 – v Southeast 4 pm, 1 pm (4 7-inning games at Lawson-Biggs Field in Great Bend)

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