Barton stumbles early on trip; rebounds for late wins
Several freshmen on the Barton County Community College softball team got a tough awakening to start their collegiate careers. The Cougars didn't get to start their season until their Spring Break trip, which saw them post a 3-11 record.

Highlights
While Barton struggled out the games losing their first 7 games, the young Cougars did show improvement as the trip went along. Barton won two of its final four games, including a win over team that had beaten them 7-1 earlier in the trip.

The Cougars opened their trip in Warner, Okla. at the Conners State Tournament, dropping all four contests including a tough 1-0 decision to start the year against Conners State. The Cougars continued struggling to scores runs in a 4-game series at Galveston (Texas) College. The Cougars dropped the first three games before posting a 1-0 win as freshman pitcher Karina Ramirez tossed the 4-hit shutout.

Barton fell to 1-9 with a pair of shutout losses to a very good Temple College in Texas as well. Through the first 10 games of the young season, Barton was had scored just 12 runs -- 5 of those in a 6-5 loss.

But the Cougars began to find their bats as they worked their way back into Oklahoma and the Midwest Classic in Tulsa, Okla. In the first day at Tulsa, the Cougars won both contests, scoring nearly as many runs in two games (11) as they had the previous 10 games (12). Barton earned a 7-1 win over Northern Iowa Area Community College and a 4-1 win over Paris (Texas) College. Paris has beaten Barton by a 7-1 at the Conners State Tourney.

The final day of the trip saw the Cougars drop two more tough contests, falling to Allen County 2-1 in 8 innings and to Bossier (Okla.) College 3-2. Brandi Gillette -- the lone returning sophomore for Barton -- hit .425 on the trip one homer and 9 of the Cougars 22 RBI.

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

Next
March 21 at Brown Mackie in Salina.