Mendez and Treto pitch complete game shutouts, Cougars balanced attack takes over first place in series opening sweep of Colby #GoBarton

The Barton Community College baseball team parlayed a pair of complete game shutout pitching performances from Antonio Mendez and Anthony Treto along with a balanced offensive attack in both ends of a doubleheader to take the first two games of a Jayhawk West series with Colby Community College on Thursday afternoon at Lawson-Biggs Field.

Mendez set the tone on the bump yielding four hits with six strikeouts over seven shutout frames while Hayden Oviatt's wall scrapping three-run blast in the fifth put the Trojans in the taillights in Barton's 7-0 victory in Game 1.

In the nightcap, Treto matched Mendez performance on the mound going the distance recording a new career high 10-strikeouts, scattering five hits in seven-innings while seven different Cougars contribed with multi-hit performances as Barton completed the twinbill sweep with a seventh-inning 19-0 run rule win.

The victories move the Cougars back into first place of the Jayhawk West standings at 14-4 and 23-8 overall while the loss drops the Trojans to third place in the league standings at 10-4 and 22-13 on the season.

Due to inclement weather forecasted for Saturday, the final two games of the four-game set will come Sunday tentatively at Colby's Young Memorial Field in a 1:00 p.m. first pitch before the Cougars will step out of conference play on Tuesday with a doubleheader against the junior varsity squad of McPherson College.

Mendez improved to 4-1 on the hill with his third seven-inning performance of the season. The freshman allowed four hits, one walk with six punchouts. Mendez surrendered three of the four hits over the opening two innings before retiring eight straight and 12 of his final 13 hitters faced.

Treto induced a pair of double plays to help keep the sheet clean in the nightcap with a first inning 4-6-3 double play and fourth inning 6-4-3 twin killing double play, as the sophomore permitted five hits over seven frames with a career high 10 punchouts on 90 pitches in the outing and improving to 3-2 on the season.

The Cougars accounted for at least a run in 10 of their 12 at-bats as the Barton bats collected 25 hits on the afternoon with all nine in the starting nine recording at leasst one hit.

Kyle Walker sparked the lineup going 4-for-6 from the seventh spot with a double and driving in three runs all coming in Barton's game two eight run, sixth inning.

Ayden Hadley guided the Cougars runs production on the day driving in seven of the Cougars 24 RBIs. The sophomore keyed the opening run of the day with a single before driving home six in the nightcap with a first inning run scoring double, two-run fifth inning home run for his seventh of the year and two-RBI triple in the sixth, combining to hit for the cycle over the doubleheader.

Cesar Gomez added two of his three RBIs in the backend coming on a pair of singles in the Cougars eight run sixth joining Tyler Janssen, Wyatt Yetter and Kyle Graves fabricating a trio of hits apiece towards Barton's 25 hits in the pair of contests.

Barton combined for a trio of home runs on the afternoon, Oviatt delivering his lone hit of the day behind his three-run sixth inning blast in the opener tailed by game two round trippers from John Connors fourth inning leadoff solo-shot and Hadley's 2-1 count no-doubter to right in the sixth.

Having his six-game hit streak snapped in game one, Hunter Alvord collected his pair of hits in game two off a pair of RBI triples concluding the day 2-for-6 at the plate.