Cougars move closer to West title with sweep of Colby
The Barton County Community College softball team took a big step toward winning its first Jayhawk West title in four years with a sweep of Colby Tuesday afternoon at Cougar Fields in Great Bend. Barton improved to 12-2 in the West with a 3-0, 5-0 sweep of Colby. Barton needs one more win today at Dodge City to clinch at least a tie and 2 more wins to secure the title outright. The only team that can still catch Barton is Pratt. The Beavers are 9-3 in the West with a doubleheader at home today against Seward and a twinbill at Garden City Thursday. The Cougars are now 21-22 overall and also improved to 11-2 in District C, tied for the top spot with Johnson County for post-season seedings. The Cougars have won 8 straight West games. Colby fell to 5-9 in the West and 18-36 overall.

Highlights
Barton rode a good pitching effort from Karina Ramirez to win the opener as well as some great defense. On two occasions in the contest, the Cougars turned in double plays to secure a 1-0 lead. The 1st came in the 4th when Ashlee Earley snared a line drive headed down the 3rd base line and doubled up a Colby runner at 1st. The 2nd came in the 6th when Colby bunted a runner to second but an alert Megan Suiter, covering at 1st on the bunt, fired to 2nd base to double up the Colby runner, who had taken a big turn. Maggie McCoy and Amanda Baker each drove in runs in the bottom of the 6th to give Ramirez some cushion on her way to improving to 11-4 this season with an ERA just over 1.00.

In the 2nd game, the Cougars scored early then held on. Barton scored a run in the 1st inning without getting the ball out of the infield for a 1-0 lead the pushed that to 5-0 in the 2nd inning and were never challenged after that. Tiffany Sallee went the distance on the mound for Barton, improving to 7-4 for the year.

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

Next
April 22 – at Dodge City, 3 pm (Jayhawk West contest in Garden City)