The Barton Community College baseball team dropped the final two games of the series Friday to No. 5 Cloud County Community College at Jimmy Lawson-Danny Biggs Field, falling 15-1 in the opener before a 5-2 setback in the finale.
A day after erupting for 25 runs on 23 hits, Barton's offense was limited to just three runs on nine hits across the final two games of the series as Cloud County used early offense in the opener and late execution in the finale to complete the doubleheader sweep.
The losses drop the Cougars to 31-19 overall and 15-17 in conference play, marking the program's first sub .500 conference finish since the 2015-16 season. The T-Birds improve to 42-5 overall and remain atop the Jayhawk West at 23-4 entering the final week of the regular season.
Barton will next travel to Pittsburg State University's Gene Bicknell Sports Complex to face Labette Community College in a three-game set beginning Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. before concluding the regular season Thursday with a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader.
Offensively, Carter Helm led the Cougars with three hits, while Kyler Horsman was the lone Cougar player to record a hit in both contests.
On the mound, Barton issued 18 free passes across the doubleheader, including 13 walks and five hit batters.
Game 1 Recap
Cloud County struck early with Lucas Laukkanen's three-run home run in the second and added to its advantage with a Barton miscue to open the fourth before Luke Clayton's three-run blast in the fifth built a 7-0 lead.
Held to just three hits, the Cougars lone run came in the fifth as JJ Spafford delivered an RBI single to plate Hayden Oviatt, who reached on a one-out walk.
The T-Birds broke the contest open in the seventh, erupting for eight runs with all the damage coming with two outs, capitalizing on five of Barton's 11 free passes along with a defensive miscue to pull away for the 15-1 victory.
Horsman's two-out triple in the first accounted for Barton's lone extra base hit, while Oviatt and Spafford each added a hit.
The Cougars utilized five pitchers in the contest, with Horsman (6-2) suffering the loss after working the opening three-innings, allowing three runs on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Game 2 Recap
Trailing 2-0, Barton immediately cut the deficit in half in the first as Helm delivered an RBI groundout scoring Kyle Walker, who reached on a leadoff walk.
The contest settled into a pitcher's duel from there, with the Cougars breaking through with the tying run in the sixth as Horsman's leadoff single and Helm's ensuing base hit created Micah McGavran's game-tying sacrifice fly to knot things at 2-2.
Cloud County broke the tie in the seventh, capitalizing against the Barton bullpen as a two-out hit-by-pitch and a pair of walks pushed across the go-ahead run for a 3-2 lead. The margin grew in the eighth with back-to-back doubles before a run-scoring single extended it to 5-2.
Brian Justice (4-6) turned in a career outing, working 6.1 innings with a career-high 12 strikeouts, walking two while allowing three runs on four hits, but tagged with the loss despite the strong effort.
Helm led the Cougars' six-hit effort, recording the lone multi-hit performance with a 3-for-4 outing of three singles and an RBI. McGavran added the other RBI, while Rhett Winchester, Horsman and Dalton Jorgensen each adding a hit.