It came at a good time. With the weekends filled with Jayhawk West series, the Barton baseball team has traditionally scheduled a junior varsity for a midweek break. A single 9-inning game for a relief from the grueling 4-game grind against conference foes.
This week it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Cougars are fresh off being swept by Hutchinson this past weekend.
So picking up a win would brighten the outlook for this weekend’s home series with Pratt. The games with Pratt this weekend have been moved up one day in order to try and beat some possible weather issues coming to the area.
Barton did just that as the Cougars rolled to a 10-3 win over the Bethany JV on the road. Barton put the game away late, starting with a 2-run sixth inning and rolling all the way to a 3-run ninth.
The win boosted Barton’s record to 22-18 overall this season.
The Cougars were slow to start and in fact didn’t get their first hit of the game until the top of the sixth inning. But once that first hit was in the books, the flood gates opened.
Alan Clark broke up the no-hitter by Trevor Lemanske with a single to start the sixth – the first of three hits in the inning that allowed Barton to take a 2-1 lead. Three more hits in the next inning, jump-started by a leadoff double from Taylor Langston and Barton built a 5-1 lead on the Swedes.
Barton added two more in the eighth and three in the ninth to pull away for the easy win.
Mason Hightower led the Cougar offense with three hits while Michael Sinks added a pair of hits and two RBI. Ryan McClure scored twice. The Cougars finished the game with 12 hits – all in the final four innings.
A quintet of Barton pitchers kept the Swedes in check most of the game, giving up just five hits and three runs. Daniel Kohl picked up the win in relief, throwing three shutout innings and allowing just one hit and one walk.
Kohl improves to 3-0 on the season.
The Cougars’ games this weekend will start on Friday instead of Saturday with a twinbill at Lawson-Biggs Field starting at 2 pm. The same two teams will start at 1 p.m. Saturday.