Cougars season ends in District C with pair of 2-1 losses
The Barton County Community College softball team saw its season come to a tough end Saturday at the District C Championships in Wichita, being eliminated in the loser's bracket quarterfinals by Cloud County 2-1. It was the Cougars 2nd straight 2-1 setback on the day after winning their opening game 5-3 over Colby. Barton lost in the winner's bracket semifinals 2-1 to Kansas City Kansas in 8 innings. KCK eventually won the District C title. With the win over Colby, Barton Coach Tom Curtis recorded his 600th win at the school. Barton ends its season with a 25-28 record.

Highlights
The Cougars started the tournament off just how they had hoped, moving along to the winner's bracket semis and giving Coach Curtis his 600th career victory. The Cougars jumped on top 3-0 in the 2nd inning as Vanessa Roy drove in Jessica DeWild and Ruby Garza with a double and eventually scored on an error. Barton pushed the lead to 5-1 with single runs in the 3rd and 4th innings. Amanda Baker drove in Taylor Gorjiyan with a fly out in the 3rd and Roy scored again in the 4th on a Karina Ramirez single. Colby scored twice in the 6th to close the margin to 5-3. Ramirez picked up the win on the mound, giving up 5 hits and striking out 6.

The contest the proved to a big win for eventually champion KCK came in the semifinals against Barton County. The two teams had split games this year with Barton winning 4-1 and KCK winning 2-1. The contest turned out to be just what everyone figured – a low-scoring pitchers' battle. Neither team scored for the game's 1st 3 innings. KCK finally broke the scoreless tie with a run in the 4th inning but the Cougars struck back in the 5th. Barton tied the game at 1-all when Roy singled in Amanda Baker. That is where the game stayed through the regulation 7 innings with Ramirez on the mound for Barton and Dana Dunsmore throwing for KCK. The Blue Devils took a 2-1 lead after leadoff to start the 8th inning. Barton went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, falling into the loser's bracket.

In the loser's bracket quarterfinals, the Cougars met up with Cloud County as the sun went down Saturday. It was the 3rd game of the day for Barton and the 4th for Cloud County. Again the two teams ended up locked down in pitchers duel with the two teams combining for a 2 hits through the 1st 4 innings – both by Barton County as Tiffany Sallee threw no-hit softball for 4 innings. Barton took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 5th without a hit as Ashley Muck reached on an error, stole 2nd, moved to 3rd on a ground out and scored on a fielder choice. Cloud, however, tied it up in the 5th, collecting its 1st 2 hits of the game. The Thunderbirds added another run in the bottom of the 6th, scoring an unearned run in what proved to be the game-winning tally.

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

Next
Season complete with 25-28 record.