Cougars split non conference games with Cloud County
The Barton County Community College softball team split a pair of non conference games at Cloud County, losing the opener 6-4 and winning the nightcap 3-2.

The Cougars are now 16-23 overall and remain 3-5 in the Jayhawk West. Cloud County is 15-16.

Highlights
The 2nd inning proved costly for the Cougars. Cloud County scored 5 times in the inning on just two hits. Walks, errors, passed balls, and hit batsmen all contributed to the big inning for the Thunderbirds. That gave Cloud a 6-1 lead. Barton made it 6-3 with two unearned runs on their own in the 3rd as Karina Ramirez and Megan Suiter both scored. The Cougars inched even closer in the 5th when Ruby Garza drove in Ramirez to make it 6-4, but that is as close as the Cougars would get.

Ramirez had 3 hits in the game and scored 3 times as well. She also took the loss on the mound, allowing 5 hits and 6 runs, just 2 of which were earned.

In the second game, the Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the 1st when Ramirez started things off with a double and scored on an error. Ramirez again found herself on the base paths in the 3rd inning and worked her way in to score for the second time in the game. She reached on an error, stole second, move to third on a ground out and scored on a Garza single. Cloud tied the game in the bottom of the 3rd. That is where it stayed until Garza hit a leadoff home run in the 6th inning for the game's final run.

Erin Morin picked up the win for the Cougars in relief of Karalea Closson. Morin pitched the final 3 innings, allowing just 2 hits and no walks. Closson gave up only 3 hits in her 4 innings.

Stats
Stats can be found on the Barton County website at www.bartonccc.edu/sports.

Next
April 12-13 at Colby Invitational