Dating back to 2007 the Barton Community College softball team had been unable to win in Liberal, Kansas, but the 2015 edition of the Lady Cougars erased the streak earning a come-from-behind 3-1 victory Wednesday at Seward County Community College. Breaking a twelve game stretch of losses in Liberal, the Lady Cougars also snapped a twenty-four game losing streak to the Lady Saints in taking the first of the doubleheader. Off to its best start in school history, Barton improves to 16-4 on the season and 2-1 in conference play while Seward County falls to 12-9 and 3-2 in the Jayhawk West.
With Taylor Bugner limiting Seward County to only two hits in the opener, the Cougars put together seven hits led by last week's conference and national player of the week Erica Harper's 2-for-4 performance.
Defense wasn't the specialty of the Lady Cougars in the doubleheader as Barton committed the first of three errors in the first game allowing the second batter aboard eventually turning into the Lady Saints' lone run in the game. It was the only error of the three to haunt the Lady Cougars but four in the nightcap would prove costly.
It took three innings Wednesday but Barton finally broke through in the fourth as Brianna Ward set the table with a leadoff double to begin the inning. Following Harper reaching on an interference play, Kylie Everill doubled to left field to tie the game up.
One inning later the Cougars would take the lead as Braydee Bakovich got things going with a lead off single up the middle. Following a McKenna Mauler sac bunt moving Bakovich to second, Bailey Hensley drove a 3-2 pitch to left field giving Barton a one run lead.
Bugner came through in the home half of the fifth working out of a leadoff single and walk to protect the lead. Barton threatened again in the sixth with a one-out Caitlin Garcia walk and Jenna Hosey single but came up empty and Bugner again held off the Lady Saints working out of a first and second one-out jam. With two quick outs in the Barton seventh, Harper delivered her sixth homerun of the season giving the Lady Cougars some cushion heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Two Barton infield errors made the bottom of the seventh interesting as Seward loaded the bases with one-out. Bugner battled again and in three pitches induced a fly out in foul territory and fielder's choice groundout seal the win improving to 7-1 with the complete game two-hitter.