LIBERAL — Pitching was the winner Thursday afternoon in Liberal. Unfortunately for the Barton baseball team, the pitching of Seward was slightly better than the pitching of the Cougars.

Barton dropped a pair of Jayhawk West baseball games to the Saints. Seward won the doubleheader 2-0 and 4-2 over the Cougars.

Barton still sits in first place in the Jayhawk West with 9-5 record but are no longer by themselves in first. The Cougars are 20-9 overall. Seward is within a game of the lead with an 8-6 West record and are 16-14 overall.

Butler also dropped a pair of games at Colby to stay one back of Barton and now tied with Seward at 8-6. Hutch swept Garden to improve to 9-5 and tied with Barton. Throw in 6-4 Colby and 7-5 Cloud County and things are jumbled at the top the West standings.

Barton surrendered just 11 hits in the two games combined, just up just six runs. Barton had 10 hits and just two runs during the day.

Game one was almost over before it began. The contest took just over an hour to complete. The clubs combined for just those two runs and only five hits.

Neither team had a hit during the first four innings, although Seward did manage a run in the second without a hit.

A leadoff walk followed by a hit batsman off Barton pitcher Zach Curry got the Saints started. A sac bunt moved the runners over and a sac fly scored a run.

The first hit of the game came in the bottom of fifth but it was wiped out when the Cougars turned a double play.

Seward made it a 2-0 game in the bottom of the sixth. 

Cruz Shope led off with a single and two outs later Benny Ayala doubled him home for the 2-run cushion.

Barton finally got its first hit one out into the seventh and final inning. At that point, Seward pitcher Tanner King had thrown the minimum, allowing just a walk erased by a double play.

But back-to-back 1-out singles by Adam Schrag and Noah Geekie put the tying runs on base. It ended just batter later on a second double play by the Saints.

Curry was the tough-luck loser, allowing just three hits and a walk to fall to 3-2. King also went the distance, taking that no-hitter into the final inning to improve to 4-2.

In the second game, Barton fell behind 2-0 early then evened things up in the top of the fifth. Geekie tied the game when he doubled in Trenton Ferguson and Andrew Stewart with two outs.

Seward scored a single run in each the seventh and eighth innings for a 4-2 lead.

Like the first game, Barton threatened in its final at bat. 

The Cougars led off the ninth with back-to-back singles by Chandler Bloomer and Schrag but would not get another hit.

Geekie finished the three hits and had four of the Cougars 10 hits during the afternoon along with both RBI.

The series will wrap up Saturday at Lawson-Biggs Field when Seward makes the return trip for a pair of games.

G1

Seward 2, Barton 0

Barton    000 000 0 – 0 2 1

Seward   010 001 x – 2 3 0

Curry and Rheinheimer; King and Kuhn. W – King (4-2). L – Curry (3-2). 2B – Ayala, Seward.

G2

Seward 4, Barton 2

Barton    000 020 000 – 2 8 2

Seward   100 100 11x – 4 8 0

Smith, Crisp (7) and Bloomer; Evans, Thomas (), and Kuhn. W – Thomas (3-1). L – Crisp (1-2). 2B – Geekie, Barton; Werner, Seward; HR – Shope, Seward.