After a 12-day layoff, the Barton Community College baseball team returned to action Thursday afternoon dropping Game 1 of the Region 6/Plains District First Round at Lions Field in Fort Scott.
Holding an early 2-0 advantage through 3.5-innings, Fort Scott quickly gained control with a three-run fourth inning before adding single runs over the final four frames to hand Barton a 7-4 loss and 1-0 deficit in the best-of-three series.
The loss drops the Cougars to 31-20 overall, while the Greyhounds improve to 38-19. Barton will have a quick turnaround Friday morning, looking to keep the season alive and force a decisive Game 3 with first pitch now scheduled for 10:00 a.m. at Lions Field due to impending weather.
The Cougars struck first in the third as JJ Spafford's leadoff infield single came around to score on Rhett Winchester's sacrifice fly before extending the lead to 2-0 in the fourth. Micah McGavran's two-out RBI single capped a rally sparked by Hayden Oviatt's two-out hit-by-pitch and stolen base.
Fort Scott answered in the bottom of the fourth, loading the bases with no-outs and capitalizing on a bases loaded hit-by-pitch, RBI groundout and a Barton miscue to plate three runs and take a 3-2 lead. The Greyhounds added to the advantage with a two-out solo home run in the fifth.
Barton trimmed the gap back to one in the sixth as Kyler Horsman's second double of the contest came around to score on Kyle Graves' RBI single to make it 4-3. After Fort Scott pushed the margin to three in the seventh, the Cougars answered in the eighth as Winchester's leadoff single raced home on Carter Helm's sacrifice fly to make it 6-4.
The Greyhounds added the final run in the eighth on a two-out RBI single to cap the scoring.
Offensively, Horsman and Spafford paced the Cougars with the lone multi-hit performances, as Horsman went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles while Spafford finished 2-for-3 with two singles.
Starting hurler Antonio Mendez (2-4) suffered the loss on the mound, allowing five runs, three earned, on five hits over 5.0 innings of work. Landon Ritchey followed in relief, surrendering two runs on five hits across 2.2 innings, while Daegen Vinduska recorded the final out in his lone batter faced.