Looking to follow up a Wednesday split and continue momentum into the final week of the regular season, the Barton Community College baseball team fell short in the final two games of the four-game series Friday afternoon against 20th ranked Hutchinson Community College by scores of 12-10 and 17-3 at Hobart-Detter Field in Hutchinson.
Six home runs in the opener weren't enough to hold off the Blue Dragons as Hutchinson pieced together six straight singles in plating four runs in the decisive fourth inning to win 12-10. Drawling within 4-3 in the fourth inning of the nightcap, 13 unanswered Hutchinson runs in the final two at-bats secured the Blue Dragons series clinching 17-3 seventh inning run rule victory over the Cougars.
Falling to sixth in the conference standings at 15-13 and 33-19 overall, Barton drops its second straight conference series for the first time since the 2019 season while the Blue Dragons wrap up conference play with a league best 27-5 mark and move to 42-11 overall.
Heading into the final conference series of the season, Barton will continue the road trip with a Thursday trip out to Garden City Community College for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader at Williams Stadium before concluding the regular season with the final two games on Saturday at Lawson-Biggs Field.
Hutchinson outhit the Cougars by eight in the twin bill, but 10 hits were for extra bases including a trio of home runs in each of the two games including a pair of three-run home runs in the sixth inning of the nightcap.
Barton's 24 hits on the afternoon were led by the duo of Jaron Cotton and Grant Nottlemann's four each. Cotton opened the day with a 3-4 performance, with three RBIs, furnishing two of Barton's six game 1 home runs with the first on the front end of back-to-back round trippers teaming up with Owen Bailey gifting the Cougars their lone lead of 3-0. Nottlemann was 2-3 at the plate in the opener while distributing his first collegiate home run.
Joining Cotton with multiple RBIs on the day was the trio of Cesar Gomez, Hank Orr and Barrett Donaldson. Gomez supplied his pair between the two games, with Orr's knotting things up at 6-apiece in the opener behind his second fence clearer of the season and Donaldson's first collegiate home run drawing Barton within 4-3 in the fourth of the nightcap.
Game 1 starter Nathan Bowman earned a no-decision going three innings. Anthony Treto (4-2) dropped the loss in the opener working two innings in relief.
Ethan Minaker (4-2) suffered the game two loss after three innings on the mound, with the freshman settling in with two shutout innings after a four-run first inning.