Pitcher Zach Thornton earned his team leading fifth victory of the season and Alex Rodgers collected a four-hit day to lead the Barton Community College baseball team to a series split with the Butler Community College Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon at McDonald Field in El Dorado, KS.
Pounding out 13 hits in the opener the Cougars rolled to a 5-inning 13-0 triumph before falling on the short end of the stick in the series finale 4-3 in 10-innings. Splitting the four game series Barton sits in sixth place in the conference standings at 10-10 and holds a 23-14 overall record while Butler sits with a third best mark in league play at 15-9 and 19-10 mark on the season.
The Cougars will return home Friday afternoon to kick off a four game set with the Beavers of Pratt Community College. First pitch of the doubleheader scheduled for 1:00 p.m. from Lawson-Biggs Field before concluding the series in Pratt on Saturday afternoon with a 1:00 p.m. start from Stanion Baseball Field.
Game One Recap:
Back-to-back one-out knocks by Wade Reynolds and Carson Pracht had Barton in business for Connor Scott as the freshman broke the scoring open two pitches later with an RBI groundout. The scoring threat remained over the next three batters as Carson Shively drew a two-out walk setting up RBI's on Connor Allen's single and Micah Grover's double capping the three-run opening frame.
Cougar starter Thornton looked near flawless holding the Grizzlies offense at bay tossing four 1-2-3 frames in the complete game shutout. Thornton's lone scare came in the second as Butler triggered back-to-back leadoff singles to open the home half until the lefty dug deep sending the next three Grizzlies down in order including one of his seven punch-outs.
Breaking things open in the fourth; Barton mounted together an eight spot on four homeruns as Grover got things started launching a leadoff shot, his first of two round trippers in the inning. Caden Bressler began another Cougar scoring threat drawing a one-out walk succeeded by a Rodgers single before Reynolds ballooned the margin to 8-0 with a three-run shot to right. The onslaught continued with Allen blasting the Cougars second three-run shot in the inning his fifth of the season driving in Scott and Shively. Grover made it back-to-back jacks following up Allen's missile with his second solo-shot in the frame stretching the Barton margin to 12-0.
The Cougars capped the 13-run frenzy in the top of the fifth as Pracht joined the RBI party with an RBI single knocking in Rodgers.
Game Two Recap:
Looking for a series victory in the finale, Rodgers got things brewing for the Cougars in the third leading off with his team leading 13th double before Reynolds put Barton in front on the very next pitch launching his second homerun of the afternoon with a two-run blast.
Starting hurler Payton Tinkler had the Grizzlies hitters uneasy striking out six through five frames. Tinkler ran into some trouble in the sixth as Butler pieced together the tying runs on Josh Cameron's two-run homer.
The offense was hard to come by over the next inning and half until Butler's Jackson Syring broke the 2-2 deadlock with a leadoff solo-shot to left.
Down to their final two-outs needing a run, Grover delivered the call for the Cougars launching his third homerun of the afternoon sending a solo-shot over the left field wall sending the contest to extras.
In the extra frame, Barton stranded the go ahead run at second following back-to-back two-out singles from Pracht and Scott. The Grizzlies rode the momentum just five pitches later as Cache Stone walked it off with a solo-blast to dead center splitting the doubleheader and series.