Walk Off Bombs Lead Barton Past Seward

Just one week after walking off Butler twice in one day, the Seward County Saints got the tables turned on them Friday afternoon in Great Bend as the Barton Cougars used a solo home run to beat Seward 4-3 in walk off fashion in game one of their Jayhawk West Conference doubleheader and a three run job in game two to kick in the run rule in a 17-7 Cougar win to sweep the twinbill. 

Barton jumped in front early in game one of the doubleheader, pushing two runs across in their first at bats of the day to take a quick 2-0 lead on the Saints. 

The Saints scored their first run of the day in the top half of the 3^rd as Brendan Madsen doubled off the right field wall, then stole second and scored on a throwing error to slice the Cougar lead in half at 2-1. 

A single back through the box in the 5^th by Errett Edwards drove home a run and knotted the score at two and the teams traded runs in the 6^th to send the game to the 7^th tied 3-3. 

Neither team scored in the 7^th and thus, the game went to extras in the series opener, still knotted at three apiece. 

Seward had their cracks first in the 8^th, but failed to produce a run, but it didn't take long for the Cougars to get theirs as Michael Sinks hit a no doubter over the left field wall to lead off the Barton half of the inning to bring an abrupt end to the contest in a 4-3 Cougar win. 

The Saints had seven hits in the win, but left eight on, while the Cougars had five hits and five LOB's.  Cody Stineman was the only Seward hitter with more than one hit in the loss as he finished 2 for 2 with a walk and an RBI.  Jared Biddy went the distance on the mound, allowing five hits and four runs while striking out five, but falls to 4-4 on the year with the loss. 

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON GAME ONE BOX SCORE

Just as they did in game one, Barton jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in game two by plating a pair of 1^st inning runs in game two. 

Barton doubled their lead in the 2^nd as they got an infield single and a sacrifice fly to make it a 4-0 game.

Seward got one back on an RBI single from Brian Tims in the 3^rd and two more in the 4^th on RBI's from Madsen and Edwards to get the Saints back to within one at 4-3. 

In the 4^th, the Cougars teed off on Saints pitching, pounding out nine hits, including hitting for the cycle as a team, and sending 14 men to the plate in an eight run frame to balloon the Barton lead to 12-3. 

The Saints offense kept fighting as Jacob Nielsen, Montana Newell, and Brendan Madsen drove home runs in the 5^th to get back to within striking distance at 12-7, but Seward's pitching staff couldn't hold the Cougars down as Barton answered with two in the bottom of the inning and then got a three run bomb to bring the game to a halt with the run rule in the 6^th in a 17-7 Cougar win. 

Saints pitching allowed 19 Barton hits in just 5+ innings of action while Seward had 12 hits themselves.  Four different Seward players had two hits in the game while Madsen had a pair of RBI's in the loss.  Ethan Earhart took the loss on the mound for Seward, failing to get out of the 4^th inning while allowing 13 hits and 12 runs to drop back to 3-3 on the year. 

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON GAME TWO BOX SCORE

The Barton sweep on day one is a big hit to Seward's chances to host a home playoff series as they fall to 16-26 overall and 9-13 in Jayhawk West play while the Cougars push to 31-13 overall and 13-9 in league play. 

The same two teams will get back after it at 1:00 Saturday at Lawson-Biggs Field to wrap up the series before the Easter Holiday.