There’s times when the baseball looks like a watermelon coming to the plate for a hitter. It appears as if the ball is coming at them in slow motion.
That is the case right now for Michael Sinks. During Barton’s sweep Sunday in El Dorado to wrap up a 3-1 series against Butler to open the Jayhawk West schedule, Sinks was looking at watermelons.
The sophomore second baseman went 8-for-10 at the plate, with a home run and four doubles. That’s right 14 total bases in 10 at bats.
On the strength of that play, Barton swept the Butler 8-4 and 10-4 to win the series. The teams had split Saturday with Butler winning the opener 5-4 and Barton the nightcap 8-6.
The Cougars are now 14-3 overall to go with the 3-1 West record. Butler is 9-8 and 1-3. Hutchinson and Dodge City swept their openers and lead the West at 4-0.
In the final game of the series, Sinks and Corrigan Bartlett, batting behind Sinks, combined to go 9-of-12 and scored seven of the 10 runs for the Cougars.
Barton scored three in the first and three in the second to establish an early 6-0 and were never challenged. Sinks ended the game with a home run, two doubles and scored four times, going 5-of-6 at the plate. Bartlett was 4-of-6 with three runs scored.
Andrew Repp tossed five innings to pick up the win, giving up two runs on five hits with three strike outs.
In the opener Sunday, the Cougars scored four times in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead then added three runs in the seventh to push the lead to 8-4.
Taylor Langston provided the biggest blow of the game when he hit a grand slam homer in the fourth to give Barton a 4-2 lead. Langston’s shot to left scored Bartlett, Dawson Pomeroy, and Brady Michel.
Sinks had the big shot in the seventh, when his double to left scored Alan Clark and Paul Claassen. Sinks later scored on a wild pitch.
Sinks went 3-for-4 in the opener with a pair of doubles.
Jarrett Seaton got the win, going five innings and giving up four runs – three earned. Daniel Kohl and Taylor Langston didn’t allow a hit in their two innings of relief to lock down the win.
Barton will be out of West play now until March 18 as the Cougars have their bye week in the conference slate next weekend.
The Cougars will be at Hesston Tuesday for its midweek, single 9-inning game. The cougars will host Iowa Lakes over the weekend doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday at Lawson-Biggs Field.