Dropping their first game of the season on Friday, the Barton Community College baseball team came back with vengeance on Saturday to win the series with a doubleheader sweep over Kansas City Community College.
The host Blue Devils used a four run fourth inning on Friday to help win the 9-inning affair 9-4, but the Cougars got revenge on Saturday in plating nine runs in the opening two innings riding to a game one 15-7 victory before shutting KCK out 6-0 behind dominating pitching in the nightcap.
The Cougars improve their mark to 7-1 on the season and will return to Lawson-Biggs Field on Monday for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch against Tabor College JV.
Friday
A sluggish start put the Cougars in an early hole as KCK plated nine runs through the first four innings. Barton eventually broke through the scoring column in the top of the sixth on a Carson Pracht sacrifice fly. The Cougars delivered one last push in the top of the seventh as Connor Allen connected on a 3-run blast providing the final margin 9-4.
Offensively five Cougars recorded hits in the loss with Allen's first round tripper on the year and Alex Rodgers leadoff double marking the lone extra base hits.
Sophomore Graham Brunner (1-1) took the loss after allowing nine runs (two earned) on seven hits over 3.2 innings of work.
Ian Lanik was solid in relief for the Cougars tossing 4.1 scoreless innings, allowing one hit while striking out five Blue Devils.
Saturday Game 1:
Looking to bounce back following their first loss of the season, the Barton bats came alive in the opening frame plating four runs coming on a Micah Grover sac-fly, Allen two-run double and Connor Scott RBI single. One of two Barton errors in the contest generated life in the opening inning as the Blue Devils trimmed the deficit in half on Palmer Hutchinson's 2-run homer his second in the series.
The Barton bats returned the favor in the top of the second taking advantage of two plunked batters, one walk and one Blue Devil error fueling to a five-run inning highlighted by a pair of RBI's from Shawn Marquis and reigning KJCCC hitter of the week Jordan Ellison while Grover tallied his second of his four runs batted in.
KCK clipped the margin to 9-5 in the bottom of the fourth on RBI's from Caleb Adams and Raymond Paniagua while tacking another on a Cougar passed ball.
Grover expanded the Barton lead back to 10-5 in the top of the fifth with a double to center bringing home Rogers.
KCK produced one final push in the sixth scoring a pair on Barton's second error of the contest and sacrifice fly trimming the margin to within three, 10-7.
The Barton bats put away KCK with a five-run two-out rally powered by Allen's second homerun of the series running the final margin to 15-7.
Six Cougars tallied multi-hit performances with Allen and Grover combining for eight of the 14 RBI's.
Starter Jake Kuntzendorf (1-0) earned the win going 2.2 innings allowing five runs (two earned) walking three and striking out two.
Hunter Hesseltine worked 2.2 innings allowing one hit, two runs (one earned) while striking out one. Carson Cornelius worked the final 1.2 innings fanning a pair of Blue Devils allowing no hits.
Saturday Game 2:
Zach Thornton set the tone early and often in the nightcap, finishing with six strikeouts and just two hits in five innings of work. Thornton (1-0) gave way to Peyton Tinkler for a four pack of punch-outs in chalking up the final of 10 game two strikeouts.
While Thornton and Tinkler were shutting the Blue Devils offense down, Scott got the Cougar bats rolling sending a two-run shot over the left field fence propelling Barton to a 2-0 advantage.
Allen would add to the Cougar lead in the top of the fourth connecting on his third moonshot of the series stretching the lead to 3-0.
The long ball remained contagious for Barton with the edge growing to 4-0 as Rodgers joined the homer party with his first blast of the season.
In the sixth, Allen and Scott teamed up with back-to-back doubles as Scott knocked in his third RBI of the day extending the lead to 5-0.
Pracht's sac-fly in the top of the seventh would close out the scoring, as the Cougars would manage to take the twin bill 6-0.
Allen led the Barton bats with a 3-for-3 performance with Scott leading the RBI production with three.