The Barton Community College baseball team held off an Allen Community College rally Friday at Lawson-Biggs Field to come away with a 7-5 win in the opening round of the Central District Region VI Tournament.  Behind a combined five-hit nine strikeout pitching performance, the Cougars erased a two run deficit with seven unanswered while getting a combined five hitter to hold off the Red Devils.  The victory improves Barton to 41-16 on the season but more importantly puts the Cougars ahead in the best-of-three series as Allen drops its fourteenth consecutive slipping to 28-26.  

First pitch for Saturday's game two slated for 2:00 p.m. as admission for the nine inning game free to the public, with local radio 107.9FM coverage, as well as, audio/video web streaming and live stats found at www.BartonSports.com.

Barton found itself trailing by two as Allen put solo runs on the board in the third behind a three walks and an RBI single before a Skylar Culver fourth inning solo shot to centerfield.  

Trey Pittman's one out walk and Cole Henley's deep double to the right center warning track would become the tying runs as Brett Bonar's chopper up the middle squared the score through four.

With the Cougars re-energized from Bonar's 2 RBI single, Garret Rogers returned the mound sending down the Red Devils in order with a pair of strikeouts in accumulating six through five innings.

Corrigan Bartlett's single began the home half with Dawson Pomeroy sending a deep triple to the right center gap with Kaden Fowler's hard shot up the middle pushing the lead to 4-2.

Michael Sinks increased the lead in the seventh with his fifth triple of the year and 54th RBI while Taylor Langston and Bonar each tacked on more runs building the lead to five headed to the top of the eighth.

Langston traded in his right field position in taking the mound, getting greeted with a leadoff single followed by an infield error.  Needing a big first out of the inning, Pittman came through with a tremendous laid out catch on a liner in foul territory.  The out proved big as Culver crushed his second long ball of the game and 18th of the season immediately closing the gap to two.  Langston would get out of the inning then complete his seventh save of the season sending the Red Devils down in order helping Rogers improve to 7-5 on the season.

Pomeroy, Henley, and Bonar led the eleven hit attack with two hits each with Bonar leading the run production with three driven in.