Treto's no-hitter and Minaker's seven shutout innings lead No. 19 Barton Baseball to opening round sweep of Neosho #GoBarton

Forced to play a traditional doubleheader after mother nature washed Wednesday's opener, the No. 19 ranked Barton Community College baseball team made quick work Thursday afternoon competing a sweep over Neosho County Community College in the opening round of the Region 6/Central District Baseball Tournament at Lawson-Biggs Field.

In the opener, sophomore pitcher Anthony Treto twirled the Cougars third no-hitter of the season while the offense came to life scoring all 13 runs in the middle innings for a 13-0 seven-inning run rule victory.

Following up Treto's performance on the rubber, sophomore Ethan Minaker answered with seven-shutout innings with the Barton offense seizing control in the middle frames once again to defeat the Panthers 9-3 in Game 2, winning the best-of-3 series 2-0.

The Jayhawk West champions and tournament No. 1 seeded Cougars improve to 42-11 on the season, advancing to the eight-team double-elimination Region 6/Plains District Tournament, held May 13-17 at Dean Evans Field in Salina while Neosho County has their season end at 24-30.

Barton will meet up with No. 8 seed Coffeyville Community College in Tuesday's 4:00 p.m. matchup after the Red Ravens swept Butler Community College 9-1 and 8-3.

Game 1 Recap
Held without a hit through the opening 3.2-innings, Kyle Walker's fourth inning two-out single initiated a seven-run Cougar rally. Walker's single produced the first of nine straight reaching base safely with two-away as Barton sent 11 to the dish.

Producing extra bases on four of their eight hits, Tate Blasi's first of two doubles originated the scoring. Cesar Gomez extended the lead one batter later with the second double in the inning driving in a pair. Back-to-back bases loaded RBI walks drawn by Ayden Hadley and John Connors kept the crooked frame going with Wyatt Yetter's two-run single capping the two-out seven run inning.

The offensive production carried over into the fifth as the Cougars sent all nine to the plate for the second straight inning adding five more runs. Tyler Janssen's one-out single drove in Blasi's leadoff hit-by-pitch with Hadley's bases loaded two-RBI double and Neosho error allowing Connors to reach pushed two more across making it 12-0.

Barton's final tally came on Gomez sacrifice fly in the sixth driving in Blasi's leadoff double.

Treto (5-3) faced just two baserunners in his seven no-hit innings, the first coming on his lone walk issued in the second and the final base runner reaching on a leadoff error to start the seventh.

The sophomore stuck out five in tossing his third complete game of the season on 91-pitches.

Game 2 Recap
Similar to the opener, Barton broke a scoreless contest in the fourth inning with four runs.

Hunter Alvord opened the home fourth drawing one of the two Cougar walks in the nightcap scoring two batters later on Yetter's RBI reaching fielder's choice.

Walker's ensuing two-bagger increased the lead by a pair while Kyle Graves two-out single back up the middle topping the four-run frame and 4-0 advantage.

Alvord and Hadley singles kickstarted the fifth inning with the Cougars tacking a run across on Yetter's sacrifice fly for a 5-0 lead.

Barton delivered the knockout blow with a four run eighth as a pair of hit-by-pitches to Walker and Gomez flipped the lineup back to the top of the order creating Janssen's RBI single and Alvord's three-run no-doubter to left field for the sophomore's team leading 17th round tripper of the season.

Neosho County strung three of their seven hits in the ninth, spoiling the Cougars shutout bid with their lone three runs on the afternoon coming off a pair of singles and sacrifice fly.

Minaker (6-2) scattered just four hits over seven shutout innings while striking out six.

Landon Haines handled a clean eighth before running into trouble in the ninth, scattering two hits, three runs on a walk and two strikeouts. Called upon to get the three outs with two-runners on, Preston Golden yielded just one hit in his inning of work.