Step one is complete.
The Barton baseball team’s quest for its first NJCAA World Series is a 2-step process. The first of those steps was completed when the Cougars won the opening series of the Region VI baseball tournament by sweeping Allen County in two games.
The Cougars won Friday by a dominate 9-0 score then blew a big lead, rallied, then held on for a 9-7 win Saturday to wrap up the series at Lawson-Biggs Field.
Next up will be the toughest of those steps – to survive the gauntlet that is the 8-team double-elimination portion of the Region VI Championships in Wichita.
“Regardless of who you are playing or where you are playing, it’s always an accomplishment to get to Wichita,” Coach Brent Biggs said. “That’s the first big step for us.”
Barton will begin that process at 1 pm Friday when the Cougars, now 42-12, will take on the winner of the Johnson County-Cloud County opening round series.
That series is tied at 1-all and will conclude today in Overland Park.
“We are going to have to play well in Wichita,” Coach Biggs said. “Getting there isn’t enough for us. We want to go there and make some noise.”
The Cougars, the Jayhawk West champs and the No. 2 seed in the Region VI Championships, were cruising along Saturday, buidling a 4-0 lead through four innings as the Barton pitching staff held Allen without a run for the first 13 innings of the series.
Barton took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Kaden Fowler double to score Harrison Denk. The Cougars made it 2-0 when Paul Claassen singled in Brett Erickson in the second then pushed it to 4-0 in the fourth thanks to Red Devils miscues.
Then the Red Devils broke through. Allen scored four times in the fifth, three of those runs with two outs.
The next inning saw Allen take its first lead of the series at 5-4.
Trailing for the first time all weekend, the Cougars responded. Aided by a leadoff error, Barton exploded for five runs.
The Cougars tied it on a single by Claassen to score Erickson. Then Fowler, a recent signee by the University of Georgia, delivered the biggest hit of the game.
With the bases loaded and just one out, Fowler drove a ball to the wall in right-center, scoring Dawson Pomeroy, Claassen, and Chandler Kelley and giving him four RBI on the day.
Carson Engroff singled in Fowler and Barton had built a 9-5 lead.
That would be prove to be the series-clinching inning for the Cougars.
Allen made some noise in the final inning, getting the lead down to 9-7 and loaded the bases with two outs off Pomeroy, the Cougar’s closer.
But Pomeroy got out of the inning, enticing a fly out to left to end the game.
The Cougars took a 4-0 lead in the opening game of the series Friday afternoon then put the game away with three more in the eighth.
Josh Hendrickson was impressive once again on the mound. The 6-4 lefty gave up just four hits over his eight innings of work, striking out 11 in the process.
Hendrickson allowed two hits in the first inning then didn’t allow another base runner until the fourth. He sat down the Red Devils in order in four of his eight innings of work to improve to 9-2 on the season.
Brett Bonar got Barton rolling in the second inning with a single, then moved to third on a double by Brady Michel. Erickson would score Bonar.
Barton made it 3-0 when Claassen doubled to left to score Erickson and Pomeroy. Harrison Denk singled in Claassen for the 4-0 lead.
In the eighth, Brady Michel and Erickson opened the inning with back-to-back singles, then a walk to Pomeroy loaded the bases with no out. Allen nearly got out of the inning, getting the next batters out without a run scoring.
But the Cougars would add to the lead on a Denk walk followed by a 2-run single from Kaden Fowler.
Allen ends its season at 25-27.
Now it’s wait and see for the Cougars. Barton will play the second game Friday at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita. Cloud won the first game of the series with Johnson on Friday, 10-4. Johnson came back to win the game two on Saturday, 11-1.
A pair of first round upset occured as 14 Seward knocked off 3 Fort Scott and 13 KCK eliminated 4 Butler.
Two series will go into Sunday. In addition to the Johnson-Cloud series, Hutchinson and Coffeyville will also play a third and deciding game.
Game 1
Barton 7, Allen 0
Allen 000 000 000 – 0 4 1
Barton 040 000 03x – 7 10 1
Postlethwait, Pease (6), Cooper (7), Walker (8) and Phipps; Hendrickson, Howe (9) and Bonar. W – Hendrickson (9-2). L – Postlethwait (5-5). 2B – Culver, Allen; Michel, Claassen, Barton.
Game 2
Barton 9, Allen 7
Allen 000 041 002 – 7 16 1
Barton 110 205 00x – 9 11 4
Cross, Potter (5), Darnell (7) and Phipps; Curry, Smith (5), Taylor (6), Howe (7), Pomeroy (9) and Bonar. W – Taylor (4-0). L – Potter (1-7). 2B – Best, Mason, Phipps, Allen; Fowler 2, Barton.
Region VI Opening Series
Best-of-3 series, Friday-Sunday
1 Cowley win series over 16 Garden , 2-0
2 Barton wins series over 15 Allen, 2-0
5 Neosho wins series over 12 Dodge, 2-0
6 Colby wins series over 11 Indy, 2-0
13 KCK wins series over 4 Butler, 2-0
14 Seward win series over 3 Fort Scott, 2-0
7 Johnson and 10 Cloud County tied 1-all
8 Hutchinson and 9 Coffeyville tied 1-all
Region VI Double-elimination
May 11, 1st Round
G1 – Seward (29-28) v Colby (31-22), 10 am
G2 – Johnson/Cloud winner v Barton (42-12), 1 pm
G3 – Cowley (42-9) v Hutch/Coffeyville winner, 4 pm
G4 – Neosho (38-18) v KCK (32-24), 7 pm