Barton roughs up Tiger pitching in a 12-8 midweek victory

The No. 3-ranked Cowley College baseball team gave up a season-high 12 runs in a 12-8 loss to Jayhawk West foe Barton County on Tuesday in Arkansas City.

The Tigers have dropped two games in a row and are now 23-7 on the season. Barton, who is receiving votes in the latest poll, improves to 21-8.

On Tuesday, Cowley found themselves trailing 3-0 after one half-inning of play before Dax McCaskill smashed a three-run homer off Barton starting pitcher Braden Hauschel in the bottom of the first.

Tiger starting pitcher Ty Parker (2-1) allowed four more runs in the top of the second inning and left with Cowley trailing 7-3.

"The pitching conditions were not great, but we still needed to make pitches early in the game," Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. "We got behind and could not catch up."

After Cowley scored a run in the bottom of the third inning, Barton got a solo home run from Wyatt Yetter and a three-run home run from Tyler Janssen in a four-run fourth inning that increased the Cougars' lead to 11-4.

The Tigers tried to claw their way back from the seven-run deficit as they scored two runs in the sixth inning and got a two-run homer from Cade Baldridge in the eighth to pull within 12-8. The homer was the sixth of the season for Baldridge.

Unfortunately, that would be as close as Cowley would get as Barton's Preston Golden pitched a scoreless ninth inning to finish the 12-8 road win.

Barton's Eli Lang (1-0) followed Hauschel on the mound with 4 1/3 innings of three-run relief.

Cameron Mock and Lucas Weaver, the last two relievers used by the Tigers, combined to retire all six batters they faced.

Baldridge had three hits out of the leadoff spot, and McCaskill's homer was his team-leading eighth of the season.

Barton's Tyler Janssen finished a single shy of hitting for the cycle, and six of the Cougars' 14 hits went for extra bases.

Cowley will open a four-game series against Fort Scott by playing a doubleheader at the Greyhounds on Thursday at 1 p.m. The teams will then play a doubleheader in Ark City on Saturday at 1. Fort Scott is 27-9 overall and 7-5 in the Jayhawk East.

"From talking to people in the conference it sounds like Fort Scott has a talented team and some good arms. It will be a tough series," Burroughs said.

Score by inning:                  R H E

Barton  3 4 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 – 12 14 0

Cowley 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 – 8 11 0