The Seward  County Saints opened Jayhawk West play at Barton on Thursday afternoon.  The Saints struggled in most aspects of a pair of losses to one of the teams picked to win the Jayhawk West as the Cougars clawed past the Saints 6-3 in game one and 11-1 in eight innings in game two.  It was a cloud day in the low 50’s with the wind blowing out to left with gusts up to 45 miles per hour.

In game one, Barton scored one in the first on a home run by lead off hitter Tyler Janssen. They scored in the third on two singles and sac fly.    The Cougars plated a fifth inning unearned run after a hit and an error.  The Saints scored in the sixth to make it 3-1.  Brooks Barber ripped a ground rule double to left.  Blaine Clancy drove him home on a ground out to second. Barton broke it open with a three run sixth with two singles and then an error on a bunt. The Cougars led 6-1. Barton added two more hits in the inning.  Nathan Hopkins doulbed home two runs. Six days after a no hitter, Brooks Kappelmann pitched five innings allowing four earned runs with five strikeouts and no walks.  Brooks Barber was Epic Touch Player of the Game going 2-3 with a double.  Barton out hit Seward 11-6.  Seward committed three errors and Barton had one.

Barton lead off hitter Tyler Janssen hit another home run in the jet stream to left center to lead off the bottom of the first.  Seward tied the game at 1-1 when Blaine Clancy sliced a home run to left.  The Cougars scored three runs on  three hits in the third.  Barton added four runs on one hit, four walks, and a hit batter in the fourth to lead 8-1.  Barton hit two home runs and scored three runs on four hits in the eighth to end the game in a run rule.  Barton out-hit SCCC 9-4.  Seward had three errors.

The Cougars are 7-3 overall and 2-0 in the Jayhawk West.  The Saints are 9-11 overall and 0-2.  The same two teams play Saturday at 1pm at Brent Gould Field with game one airing on 1270 and 92.3.