Barton spilts contest with West foe Pratt
The Barton County Community College softball team split a pair of extra inning games with Pratt Wednesday afternoon at Cougar Fields in Great Bend. Barton won the opening contest in 10 innings by a 4-3 score then fell in the 2nd contest as Pratt scored 8 runs in the top of the 8th inning by a 15-9 margin. The split gives the Cougars a 5-7 mark in conference play, good for 5th place. Barton is now 8-22 overall. Pratt moves to 2-6 in the West and 4-23 for the season with the split.

Highlights
Rosamar Gonzalez had a big game for Barton in the opener, picking up the win on the mound and scoring the winning run in the 10th inning. Gonzalez struck out 16 Pratt batters in her 10 innings of work for the Cougars. The Cougars led 2-0 in the contest late and still led 2-1 heading into the top of the 7th. Pratt scored an unearned run in the inning to make it 2-all and send the game to extra innings after Barton failed to score in the bottom of the inning.

Neither team scored in the 8th and both team scored once in the 9th, playing under the international tie-breaker rule, which starts each inning off with a runner on 2nd base. Heather Watson scored for the Cougars to even the score. Pratt's 3-2 lead after the top of the 9th was the 1st time the Beavers led the entire game. The Cougars finally won the game when Gonzalez scored from 3rd on a sharply hit ball by Natosha Stewart that deflected off the 2nd baseman's glove and into short right field.

Gonzalez is now 6-10 on the season but with an ERA near 2.50. She is averaging better than 1 strikeout per inning on the season as well.

Things didn't go as well for Barton in the nightcap, falling behind early before scoring 4 times in the bottom of the 7th to even the game at 7-all. Stewart drove in a pair of those runs with a double, scoring Amie Appley and Jenna Wondra. Deanna Beaver drove in the other 2 runs with a 2-out single, scoring Lanna Wondra and Stewart to send the game to the 8th frame. That was not a good inning, though, for Barton as Pratt scored 8 times. Barton did add pair of runs in the bottom of the inning, but it was too little, too late.

Stats
Complete stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu

Next
Sat-Sun, April 1-2 – in Johnson County Tournament, TBD (Tournament in Overland Park)