Facing a nation's top ten pitching staff Saturday afternoon, the nation's top five rated Barton Community College softball team's bats were silenced as Hutchinson Community College shutout the Cougars on 12-0 and 11-0 five-inning run rule victories.
As Barton was held to nine combined hits in the twin bill, the Blue Dragons pounded out 26 hits with six leaving the yard on a gusty afternoon helping to put runs on the board in four of the five innings in each contest.
Closing out Cougar Field for the 2024 season and wrapping up regular season play for both teams, Barton concludes the slate at 21-11 for 3rd place in the league standings and 26-18 overall while Hutchinson finishes 2nd at 28-4 and 41-9 on the year.
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Next up for both teams is the Region VI Tournament May 3-6 at Dodge City's Legend Park with the victor advancing to the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.
Allyson McDougal, who made a Sportscenter Top-Ten worthy laid out diving catch in game one, was the lone Cougar to collect a hit in each contest finishing 2-of-4 on the day in taking a four-game hit streak to the region tournament.
Cameron Pelzel also collected a pair of hits, both coming on a game two 2-for-2 performance.
The Cougars used all their pitching staff in an attempt to slow down the nation's 4th best batting team, Aly Lawrence taking the opening loss falling to 7-4 on the year with Brooklynn Angielski's attempt to work back from an injury resulting in the game two loss sliding to 7-7 on the season.
Barton came into the contest as the nation's 5th best batting team but were stymied by Dakoka Lake's seven strikeouts in game one improving to 9-3 on the year as Mogan Tomlinson improved to 14-1 with just one strikeout in game two as Barton's six hits in came up short in breaking the shoutout.
The Blue Dragons received two fence clearers, one in each game from Brooke Bachaus with Jaeleigh Darnell and Alexis Mastin each connecting on their 13th of the year. Madi Divis' three-run shot coming with two-outs put Hutchinson out to a 3-run first inning lead in game one, Tamara Lozoya extending the gap to four one inning later with a leadoff home run.