The Barton Community College softball team received strong pitching performances Monday in protecting home turf with 5-2 and 1-0 victories over Dodge City Community College.
Barton's second straight sweep against a conference opponent improves the Cougars to 10-6 after the first round of conference play and 16-12 overall while Dodge City drops to 4-8 and 10-16 on the year.
Kennedee Lara's three RBIs and Lexi Dryden's fence clearer, combined with Kayla Beers' five strikeout and five hit performance led the Cougars to the three-run game one victory.
A pitcher's duel ensued in the nightcap, Dodge City's K'Lee Flores limiting Barton to just three hits while the Cougars' Jessica Morgan fought through five Conquistador hits to strikeout out sixteen batters to preserve the shutout. Flores' lone mistake came in the third inning as Jaysa Anderson deposited a 1-0 pitch over the left field fence for her fifth of the season as Morgan stranded eight Conquistadors on the base paths.
Morgan's program record performance included striking out three in two of the frames and a pair in each of the other five innings. Eclipsing her career high in the sixth in striking out three straight to strand a leadoff double, Morgan canned two more in the seventh to surpass Madison Didion's fourteen strikeouts set on March 11, 2016, coincidentally also against the Conquistadors in Dodge City.
Next up on the schedule is the second matchup of the year with Garden City, originally scheduled for Wednesday but due to forecasted weather, the doubleheader is pushed back a day for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch on Thursday in Garden City Community College. Barton's next home game comes Saturday in a 1:00 p.m. hosting of Seward County Community College.
Game One Recap
The Conquistadors loaded the bases in their first at-bat, stringing a pair of one-out hits on either side of a walk to plate one on a groundout.
Similarly in the home half, one-out singles by Halie Stoneking and Sydni Williams put two on board with Lara delivering a two-out base knock to tie it up.
The Cougars again struck with one-out in the next two frames, Ireland Cotton's second inning hit being followed by Dryden's second long ball of the season then in the third Anderson's 'lost in the sun' triple being driven home by Lara's ground out to the right side of the diamond opening up a 4-1 lead.
A solo shot by the Conquistadors Riley Haney for her second of the season led off the fourth inning but Beers struck out two of the next three to divert any rally.
Lara drove in the final cushion run in the fifth, driving a double to left center to score Williams' second hit of the opener.
Beers struck out the lead batter of the sixth but Dodge City threatened again putting two aboard on a hit by pitch and single but the Cougar defense stepped up with Stoneking throwing a runner out at third from left field and Cotton with an infield gem in fielding a tough hopper to send a rocket across the diamond to get out of the inning.
Williams pitched the final frame to preserve the victory earning her first collegiate save, improving Beers to 6-6 on the year, while Raemie Lopp struck out six in the losing cause dropping to 0-4.
Barton finished with 10 hits led by Williams, Lara, and Krol's two hits each.
Game Two Recap
Dodge City stranded a pair of runners in each of the second and third innings but Morgan closed the door behind five strikeouts to work out of the jam.
The Conquistadors best hope to score again came in the sixth when Morgan eclipsed her previous high of thirteen strikeouts before tying Didion's fourteenth on her third straight punchout of the frame.
Aside from Anderson's two-out yahtzee with two-outs in the fourth, Barton's other real threat came in the sixth on Kayden Smith's triple off the fence but was stranded after a short outfield fly and Flores' fourth strikeout.
Morgan's record breaking seventh inning started with the pair of strikeouts, surrendering a full-count walk, then induced a harmless infield pop-up to cap the victory.
Morgan improved to 8-5 behind her Region VI leading 108 strikeouts while Flores' hard luck loss fell to 2-3 on the season.