Balanced production carries Barton Baseball to four game sweep of Seward County #GoBarton

10 different Cougars combined for RBIs as the Barton Community College baseball team completed a four-game sweep of Seward County Community College on Sunday at Brent Gould Field.

John Connors bases clearing three RBI triple sparked a four run third inning in Game 1 to defeat the Saints 6-2. Barton then got solid production throughout the lineup with seven deferent players driving in a run as the Cougars finished off the four game sweep with a 17-4 run-rule victory in eight innings.

Barton outscored the Saints 40-10 and out hit Seward County 40-21 in the four-game series.

Sweeping the four-game series for the first time since 2017, the Cougars improve to 9-3 overall and open the 32-game conference slate at 4-0 while the Saints fall to 9-13 overall and 0-4 in league play. 

Barton will conclude a four-game road trip on Thursday in the opening two games of a highly anticipated early season Jayhawk West tilt with the reigning conference champion Blue Dragons of Hutchinson Community College. First pitch of Thursday's twinbill is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. from the newly turfed Hobart Detter Field with the final leg of the four-game set now scheduled for Friday from Lawson-Biggs Field due to impending weather on Saturday.

Game 1 Recap
Hunter Alvord keyed three of the Cougars eight hits going 3-for-4 at the plate with a double.

Scoreless after an inning, Kyle Graves gifted Barton a 1-0 lead with his lone hit bringing home Wyatt Yetter's leadoff walk.

Following back-to-back Alvord and Ayden Hadley singles to open the top of the third and Cesar Gomez 1-out walk, Connor delivered the big blow behind a three RBI triple before capping the four-run inning coming across on Tate Blasi's RBI single for a 5-0 lead.

A pair of one-out walks and hit-by-pitch created Barton's final scoring with Laindon Haines sacrifice fly pushing across Barton's final run for a 6-1 lead on a sacrifice fly.

Working three scoreless frames, starting pitcher Ethan Minaker (1-1) gave up his two runs with one in the fourth and fifth innings before being lifted after 4.1-innings. The sophomore allowed six hits on the two runs, permitting one walk and fanning a trio of Saints for his first victory of the season.

Andrew McCarthy tossed two-innings in relief scattering two hits, two walks and striking out three before handing off to Kiernan Meredith for the final two-outs allowing just one walk and one strikeout.

Game 2 Recap
In the nightcap, the Cougar offense exploded producing eight extra base hits behind their 13 hits while scoring in seven of the eight innings with the ultimate blow coming in the nine run eighth taking advantage of five of its 11 drawn walks.

Hadley opened the scoring driving in the first of his four runs with a one-out double scoring Tyler Janssen's leadoff plunking.

Jaxson Case extended the lead to 3-0 just two batters into the second inning distributing his second-round tripper of the season plating the first of Blasi's three hit game two performance.

Knotted at 3-3 in the top of the fourth, Blasi sparked the Cougar offense once more legging out a leadoff triple for the first of his two extra base hits to create Barton's ultimate go-ahead run jogging home on Graves sacrifice-fly.

Gomez sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth added the eventual game winning run with Barton adding to the lead in the sixth as Alvord's RBI double drove in Janssen's second hit-by-pitch to open the two-run inning later scoring on Yetter's RBI single for a 7-3 advantage.

Swapping a pair of runs between the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, the Cougars put the Saints in the taillights in the top of the eighth adding nine runs aided behind five Seward County walks. Graves second RBI of the game coming on a bases loaded walk opened the nine-run frame also highlighted by Hadley's three-RBI triple, Yetter run producing single and Gomez two-run producing double capping his three-RBI game.

Yetter and Blasi's trio of hits keyed Barton's 13 hits with Janssen and Hadley concluding the multi-hit performance with two apiece.

Lost in the offensive onslaught was freshman starting pitcher Owen Pote (1-0). The freshman went a season long five innings with five strikeouts for his first career victory. Pote scattered two hits, three runs and pair of walks.

Batting in the opener Landon Haines took to the mound in game two going two-innings in relief permitting one run on one hit with three walks and a strikeout.

Cam Bergstrom closed the game out working a clean eighth to invoke the run-rule victory.