GARDEN CITY— Same song next verse for the Barton Community College baseball team - a weekend series split. This time the Cougars split games at Garden City over the weekend in Jayhawk West play. It was the third time in five West series Barton split games and the fifth time in seven total 4-game series.

Against the Broncbusters the Cougars dropped the opener both days while salvaging a split with a win to end play both Friday and Saturday. The split leaves Barton 10-10 in the West and 18-19 overall. Garden City is among the West leaders at 14-10 and 24-16 overall.

Garden City opened the series with a 12-2 win Friday before Barton captured a 6-3 win to end the day. Satuday saw the Broncbusters earn a 10-4 win to start the day with Barton holding on for a 14-9 to close out the series.

Barton fell behind early in the opener before a brief fifth inning rally gave the Cougars hope. Dylan Kuhn and Evan McDonald both singled and scored in the inning as Barton trimmed a 5-run Garden lead to 5-2. But things got away from the Cougars in the bottom of the sixth as Garden scored seven times to end the 7-inning game by a run rule at 12-2.

Barton played from behind much of the second game Friday as well. The Cougars fell behind 1-0 in the first then tied it on a 2-out Jacob Richardson single to score Seth Troll in the third. Garden again took the lead in the fifth at 2-1. Barton took its first lead of the game - and for the day for that matter - with a single by Troll to score two in the seventh of the 9-inning contest for a 3-2 lead.

Barton extended that lead in the eighth. McDonald led off the inning with a single and Grant Watkins followed with a double to make it 4-2. Lance White and Troll both had RBI singles in the inning as Barton put three runs across the plate for a 6-2 lead.

From there Barton would hold on for the 6-3 win as Jordan Plank got the win to improve to 6-2 and Jackson Rose closed things out in the ninth allowing the one run.

Saturday didn’t start well as Garden City score six in the second inning to take a 7-0 lead that grew to 9-0 after three innings. Barton trimmed it to 9-4 with two in the fifth and two in the sixth of the 7-inning game but that would be it for the Cougars rally.

Barton took control of the series finale with a 7-run second. Dayton Pomeroy provided the big blow with a 3-run homer over the scoreboard in left field to cap the inning and give Barton a 7-1 lead. Richardson drove in Trevor Hughes with a double in the third to make it 8-3 while doubles by Richardson and Hughes in the fourth made it 10-3.

Barton nearly ended the 9-inning by a run-rule with three runs in the seventh to take a 14-4 lead. But Garden stayed alive with two runs in the bottom of the inning. The Broncbusters would not go quietly in the bottom of the ninth scoring three times but Rose closed out the win in relief of Shane Adams.

Barton will host the Bethany JV Tuesday at Lawson-Biggs Field before getting back into West action this weekend. First pitch against Bethany is set for 5 p.m.

 Barton will host Hutchinson in a 4-game series over three days. The two will play a single game Friday, a doubleheader Saturday then close out the series with a single game Sunday.