Eight crooked frames and a total of 32 runs in 15 innings of play would carry the Barton Community College baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of Garden City Community College Thursday evening at Williams Stadium in Garden City, KS.
Game one starter Zach Thornton pitched five-plus strong innings helping Barton to a 7-2 victory in the series opener while the Cougar bats fashioned together their highest offensive output of the season claiming the nightcaps 25-15 scoring fest.
The pair of victories improve the Cougars second best KJCCC West mark to 10-4 and 20-9 overall on the season while Garden City drops to 3-7 in league play and 10-20-1 overall. Barton will look to clinch the four game series on Saturday as it shifts to Lawson-Biggs Field for a 1:00 p.m. twin bill.
Game 1 Recap
Thornton improved to 5-0 on the season working 5.2-innings allowing his lone run in the second frame. The sophomore struck out seven, walked one and scattered four hits in the winning effort.
Barton edged the opposition in hits 8-7 with Ricardo Sanchez and Dryden Howse combining for the lone multi-hit performances.
Four walks in the top of the first produced the opening run of the game with Jaden Wiley accounting for the RBI walking home Alex Rodgers.
Sanchez doubled the Cougars lead delivering the second straight two-out knock in the second lacing the first of his games two doubles driving in Rodgers from first.
Surrendering a run in the bottom of the second cutting the lead in half, Allen quickly distributed Barton's run back with a leadoff blast to left for his fifth home run of the season sparking a two-run third with Jace Stewart producing the other run generator with a groundout.
The Cougars 4-1 lead would turn into a 5-1 advantage for Barton in the top of the fourth as a leadoff Sanchez walk putting the freshman on for the third time in four innings would cross the plate on Allen's one-out sacrifice fly to center manufacturing his second RBI of the game.
Failing to score for the first time of the day in the fifth inning, the Cougar offense would return in the sixth as a leadoff Rodgers hit-by-pitch, Sanchez RBI double five pitches later and Howse two-out RBI single pushed the Barton lead to 7-1.
Reliever David Stuart came on in the bottom of the sixth getting the Cougars out of a jam inducing a two on, two-out groundout keeping the advantage at 7-1. On for the seventh, Stuart encountered his lone trouble allowing a two-out Quinn Gundlefinger solo-shot to left while also working around two more two-out knocks before recording the final out with his second strikeout in his 1.1-innings of work.
Game 2 Recap
Scoring 10-runs apiece through the opening four innings, Howse handed Barton the lead for good singling on a 1-1 count driving in a pair with Wiley capping the three run fifth with an RBI groundout.
Allen concluded his day 2-for-5 with a two-run round tripper driving in four RBIs helping lead Barton's 25-run output in the nightcap. The freshman doubled up the Cougar advantage at 17-11 in the sixth launching his sixth home run of the season.
Rodgers went 3-for-4 driving in three with a pair of doubles and walks while scoring four times from the leadoff spot. Sanchez went 2-for-5 with a double, four runs, two walks and a pair of RBIs in the No. 2 slot in the order.
The top three Barton batters Rodgers, Sanchez and Hayman were a combined 7-of-11 with eight RBIs and 12 runs scored.
Chandler Miller was 5-of-6 with three runs and an RBI while Jordan Ellison concluded his day 2-for-5 with a double and three RBIs.
Despite giving up a run in every inning, the Cougar pitching staff limited the big innings holding the Broncbusters to just three crooked spots while the Barton bats pounded for six crooked frames.
The Cougars utilized six pitchers with Tyrus Riley notching the win moving to 3-2 on the season allowing four hits, four earned runs, walking three and striking out six over 2.2-innings.
Carson Cornelius tossed the final 1.2-innings working around a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh. Cornelius allowed just one run coming on a passed ball in the eighth after loading up the bases up with two-outs following back-to-back two-out walks and a hit-by-pitch.