Great Bend, KS- Iowa Lakes falls in the three game series with Barton Community College. Barton took advantage of every mistake the Lakers made throughout the series. Game details are below.

Game 1

 The Lakers were able to get on the board first in top of the second inning when Ashtin Moxey demolished a two-run home run to left center, giving the Lakers a 2-0 lead. Drew Grubb started for the Lakers and held the Cougars scoreless through 2.2 innings before the defense started to fall apart behind him. The Cougars pounced on the Lakers in the bottom of the third, after three misread fly balls in the outfield with two outs. The Cougars were able to hit two triples and a single off the misread fly balls and led to a big inning. Grubb then walked the bases loaded and gave up a towering ground slam homerun to dead center, giving the Cougars the lead. Grubb was then relieved by Zach Meyer who recorded the last out of the inning 5 hitters later. Zach walked the first hitter, gave up a single, threw a wild pitch causing a Cougar to score, walked the third batter, then an error was committed by the third baseman causing another run to score, before he recorded the final out on a ground ball to the second baseman. The Cougars were up 11-2 before Bo Lovdahl stepped up to the plate and hit his first home run of the season to left center cutting the lead to eight. Barton answered back getting a run in the bottom half of the inning off reliever Austin Simmons when the catcher made an error causing them to score. The Lakers added two more runs in the 5^th inning off back-to-back errors by the third baseman and back-to-back RBI singles from Jordan Deadwyler and Tavan Shahidi. Bransen Petersen later in the inning reached on a fielder's choice giving the Lakers their last run of the game making it 11-6.  Simmons returned to the mound giving up 5 runs on an errors, 3 walks, a balk, a wild pitch, and a single to give Barton the mercy rule win 16-6.

Game 2

The Lakers started the game with a run in the top of the first after Mikey Adams reached on a fielder's choice giving Deadwyler an at bat to drive him in on a double to centerfield. Mitch Sparks who started the game on the mound for the Lakers kept the Barton bats quiet until the bottom of the fourth inning when they scored two runs after a slew of singles and a stolen base giving Barton the 2-1 lead. The Cougars added another run in the next inning after a single and a triple making it 3-1. Deadwyler lead off the top of the sixth inning with a single to center field and later advanced on the same play to second after an error by the centerfielder. Deadwyler scored later on a throwing error by the shortstop making the game 3-2 Barton. Sparks was put out in the sixth inning giving up two runs on three singles, a double, and an error. Paul Mudrow came out of the pen to face on batter getting him to fly-out. Mudrow gave up two runs (zero earned) in 1.1 innings after a home run in the bottom of the 8^th inning. The Lakers were able to add one more run to their score after Ashtin Moxey hit a homerun to center field. The Lakers fell with the bases loaded in the ninth making the game a final 7-3 win for Barton.

Game 3

Barton took full control of game 3 on the weekend finishing the sweep with a 10-0 win. Iowa Lakes had a 6 hits, but could not do anything on the bases when the left handed pitcher for the Cougars picked off 3 of the 6 total base runners. Marcel d'Avoine was on the mound for the Lakers going 3.2 innings giving up 6 runs (2 earned), 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. The defense behind the pitching staff continued to be shaky on the weekend allowing 4 errors. Martin Eckard was called into the game and was able to throw well against the Cougars. Eckard went 1.1 innings allowing one hit, zero runs, and one strikeout. Devon Munter returned to the hill for his third appearance for the year throwing .1 innings allowing three runs on three hits.  Mitch Ebben was the final pitcher to see the mound pitching .2 innings allowing one earned run, one hit, one walks, and one strikeout.

Standout performers from the series - Moxey hit .500 with two homeruns and three RBI, BJ Johnson hit .300 with 3 hits and a stolen base and Marcus Wohl hit .500 with two hits. 

The Lakers fall to 4-7 on the year and look ahead to their next series against Southwestern Iowa Community College in Creston, Iowa on Thursday, March 16th.