COLBY — This just in – the Barton baseball team is hot.
The Cougars made it nine straight wins – eight in the Jayhawk West – with a sweep of second place Colby Saturday afternoon in Colby.
The sweep moved Barton into a tie for second along with Colby at 17-9 in the conference. Barton is now 36-13 on the season while Colby stands at 26-18. West lead Hutchinson in 22-6. Dodge City is also in the mix at 16-9.
In the process, Michael Sinks became the all-time hit leader at Barton when he slugged his
164th career hit in the second game.
Hit 164 set up a big inning for Barton in the nightcap as Barton won 8-2 after winning the opener by a 16-10 score.
That record setting hit started a 3-run inning for the Cougars in the nightcap. With the game tied at 1-all, Sinks doubled to start the top of the fifth and Corrigan Bartlett followed with a 2-run homer to right to give Barton a 3-1 lead. The Cougars added a third run in the inning when Trey Pittman doubled in Kaden Fowler for a 4-1 lead.
Sinks singled in Alan Clark in the eighth to make it a 5-1 game. Barton took all the drama out of it with a 3-run ninth for an 8-1 lead into the final half inning.
Mason Hiser went the distance for Barton to pick up the win, striking out eight.
In the opener, Barton rode the hot bat of Cole Henley to the win. Henley belted a pair of home runs and drove in five during the win.
The Cougars took control of the game with a 6-run third inning started by a 3-run shot by Henley that score Fowler and Dawson Pomeroy to give Barton a 5-1 lead.
Barton would increase it to 8-1 as Sinks tripled in Brett Bonar and Bartlett singled in Sinks.
A 2-run homer the next inning by Henley gave the Cougars a 10-4 lead. Colby trimmed it to 10-6 into the fifth inning when Barton added more runs thanks to sloppy play by the Trojans to make it 13-6.
The Cougars took a 16-7 lead to the final inning and held on for the 16-10 win.
Henley finished 3-for-5 with the two homers and five RBI. Sinks went 3-for-4 with three RBI and Bartlett 2-for-4 with three RBI.
The same two will finish the 4-game series with another doubleheader Sunday in Colby.