The Barton Community College baseball team put up four second inning runs before tacking on three more in the eighth as the Cougar staff shut down Allen Community College Friday at Lawson-Biggs Field in pitching a 7-0 shutout in the opening round of the Central District Region VI Tournament. The victory improves Barton to 41-12 on the season but more importantly puts the Cougars ahead in the best-of-three series as Allen drops its third straight in slipping to 25-26. First pitch for Saturday's game two slated for 1:00 p.m. as admission for the nine inning game is 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 compiled ten hits in their eight frames of at-bats, getting multi-hit games spread through the lineup from Kaden Fowler, Brady Michel, and Paul Claassen.

Michel connected on his 26th double of the season to get things rolling behind Brett Bonar's second inning leadoff single. The two-bagger moved Michel one away from the single school record set by Barton Hall of Famer Jeff Christy in the 2004 season.

Bonar crossed the plate on Brett Erickson's fielder's choice and following Dawson Pomeroy's single, Claassen just missed a home run to left field driving in two with a double. Erasing Claassen from the paths on a fielder's choice, Brett Huelsmann then stole second before scoring on the first of leadoff batter's Harrison Denk's two RBIs in the contest.

Josh Hendrickson moved into third place in Barton history improving to 9-2 on the season while also moving up the single season strikeout chart with eleven to bring his season total to 105. The lefty from Australia sent the Red Devils down in order four of his eight innings including striking out two batters in four of the frames while scattering four hits. Tanner Howe took over the ninth to close it out striking out two more Allen County batters in stranding a hit by pitch.

Consecutive singles by Michel and Erickson keyed a three-run eighth inning, with Pomeroy walking to load the bases on his second of the game to inch three free passes away from the single season top ten list. Denk also drew a walk two outs later to pick up his second RBI with Fowler driving in his two runs with a single through the left side of the infield.