MIDWEST CITY, Okla – It was a good start to the weekend for the Barton baseball team. But the final two games didn’t go so well.

Barton won its opener at Rose State in a 3-game series, but dropped the final two contest in Oklahoma. The Cougars won the first of two on Friday, shutting out the Raiders, 6-0. But Rose State came back and did likewise to Barton in the nightcap, taking 3-0 decision.

In the rubber game Saturday, both teams finally hit in the same game with Rose State earning an 8-5 win to capture the weekend series. Barton is now 4-3 on the young season while Rose State improves to 5-3.

In the series opener, Josh Hendrickson and Tanner Howe combined for seven shutout innings to key the Barton win. Hendrickson went five innings to pick up the win while Howe threw the final two innings of the shutout.

Hendrickson struck out seven, allowed two hits and walked a pair for his first win of the season. The 6-4 sophomore transfer lefty has now allowed just one earned run in nine innings this season. Howe has not allowed an earned run in 4.2 innings of work.

The Cougars took the lead in top of the first on a Kaden Fowler sacrifice fly that scored Harrison Denk. Barton added a couple of unearned runs in the fourth then put the game away with three more in the sixth.

Brett Huelsmann provided the big blow in the sixth with a 2-run single that scored Brett Bonar and Brett Erickson.

In the second game Friday, Barton mustered only four hits and had four errors in the 3-0 loss. Fowler had two hits in the loss.

Saturday, Rose State scored three runs in the opening inning and jumped to a 6-0 lead after three innings. From there, it was uphill for the Cougars.

Barton trailed 7-1 into the seventh inning of the nine inning contest. The Cougars got back in the game by putting up four runs in that seventh inning.

Bonar doubled in Fowler and Nolan Riley then scored on a Hunter Williams ground out. Trenton Ferguson trimmed the lead to 7-5 when he singled in Paul Claassen.

After the first two batters were retired in the eighth, the Cougars were able to load the bases on back-to-back singles by Fowler and Jared Maneth and a hit batsmen for Riley. But the Cougars failed to push any more runs across. That would be the end of the Barton rally as the Cougars went 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Fowler had three hits in the loss and Bonar finished with a pair of doubles.

The Cougars will be home this weekend for a 4-game series with Western Nebraska. The two will play doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday starting a 1 pm.