Cougars bounce back from tough loss, spoil Garden City's hope of top seed
After surrounding the lead in the final inning of game one to lose 6-3, the Barton Community College baseball team bounced back and held on for a 5-4 victory over Garden City Community College in game two of today's doubleheader at Lawson-Biggs Field. The Cougars, 30-22 on the season and 12-18 in the Jayhawk Conference, dropped Garden City into a three-way tie for the conference title as they dropped to 21-9 in conference play and 34-19 overall. In Region VI play the Cougars move to 10-16 while Garden City sees their hopes of the top region seed dashed as they move to 17-9, three games behind Seward County Community College. The two teams will return to the diamond Sunday for another doubleheader at Lawson-Biggs Field beginning at 1:00 p.m.
Highlights – Game One
Garden City led 2-1 until the Cougars struck for two in the bottom of the fifth. Andre Vieyra led off with a double followed by a Tanner Carpenter base on balls. After an Alex King sacrifice, Michael Edlefsen grounded out to second scoring Vieyra. The go-ahead run came on Federico Castagnini triple over the Garden City centerfielder as he smashed a 1-2 pitch into a stiff north wind to give the Cougars the 3-2 lead they would hold until the seventh.
As been the case in many games this season, the Cougars pitching staff couldn't hold the lead as three pitchers combined in giving up four runs, two hits, three hit batsman, and two walks in the fateful final seventh inning. The Broncbusters' two hits came off a Kevin Czanecki triple down the right field line to lead off the inning then was driven home by Dakota Kell's line drive up the middle two batters later.
Highlights – Game Two
The Cougars bounced back from the game one defeat to post a two-out rally in scoring two runs in the bottom of the first. Castagnini's single got the Cougars going followed by a Clayton Garland reach on Garden City error. Adam Smith then made the Busters pay as he drove 1-2 pitch into the left center gap scoring two runs before getting thrown out stretching his double into a triple.
The Busters would score one in the fifth but Barton responded with three in the home half highlighted by a back-to-back balk calls on Garden City's Kris Lalk and a Garland triple.
Brett Bond kept the Busters at bay pitching 7 1/3 innings before giving way to the Barton bullpen. Bond allowed only four hits and three unearned runs as the Busters were making things interesting with a single run in the seventh and two in the eight before the Cougars turned to the bullpen combination of Niccolo Loardi and Edlefsen who closed out the Buster threats.