Barton splits games at Colby Tournament
The Barton Community College softball team split 4 games over the weekend in Colby at the Alan Wolf Tournament. Barton went 1-1 both days, losing its opener Saturday to Luna College (NM) then beating Lamar College (Colo). Barton again dropped its opener Sunday to Colby before defeated Luna to end the event. Barton lost doubleheaders at Seward County and Garden City earlier in the week in Region VI play. The Cougars are now 8-25 on the season. The Cougars wrap up their extended road tour with games at Butler and Brown Mackie this week.
Highlights
Barton finished the tournament in Colby with a bang, run-ruling Luna by a 9-0 score. The Cougars exploded for 6 runs in the 3rd inning to build that 9-0 lead then cruised to the 5 inning win. In that 3rd inning, Barton collected 5 hits and batted 10 on the way to 6 urns. A Kortney Friess double capped the scoring, driving in Kayla Hoskins and Asia Newberry. Barton had 7 straight batters reach base at one point. Michelle Balliett also drove in a pair with a double earlier in the inning, scoring Kayla Becker and Chelsea Bauer with the first 2 runs of the inning. Karen Harris mowed down Luna at the plate, allowing just 5 hits and striking out 4 in the process to pick up the win.
Barton nearly opened Sunday with a win over the host Trojans. Colby had built a 3-0 lead on Barton through the opening 4 innings when Barton put up a 4-spot in the 5th to take the lead – albeit briefly. Balliett and Ashley Newberry both singled to start the inning and after Asia Newberry moved them over on a sacrifice, Barton got on the board. Hoskins singled in Balliett for the Cougars 1st run. A couple batters latter Savannah Rutkowski belted a 2-out, 3-run homer to give Barton a 4-3 lead. It didn't last long as Colby put 3 across the plate in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead and eventually win the game by that 6-4 margin.
Barton lost its opener Saturday to the same Luna team the Cougars ended the tournament with. Luna won the opener 10-2 on the barrel of a pair of home runs from Jennifer Incencio. Barton collected just a pair of hits in the game – singles from Friess and Becker.
Barton finished Saturday strong, scoring in 4 of the 6 innings it batted and totaling 11 runs – the Cougars 2nd largest total of the season for a single game. The Cougars pounded out 14 hits – also the 2nd highest total of the season. Hoskins had 3 hits for Barton and drove in 3 runners as well. The sophomore from Great Bend also scored 2 times in the win. Ashley Newberry scored 3 times to go with 2 hits. Also collecting two hits in the win were Friess, Becker, Balliett and Christine Macias. Barton broke a 6-all tie with a 5-run 6th inning to propel to the win. Barton strung together 5 straight 2-out hits. Harris picked up the win in relief.
Earlier in the week, Barton lost a pair at Seward, giving the 10th ranked Saints all they could handle in the process. Barton lost 4-0 in the opener and 3-0 in the finale Wednesday. Things were as close the next day at Garden as the Cougars lost 9-1 and 10-2.
Barton will be at Butler Wednesday in region play then to Brown Mackie for non region action Friday in Salina. The Cougars will be back next week for a pair of Region VI doubleheaders against Butler and Seward Tuesday and Thursday.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
April 21 – at Butler 3 pm (Region VI doubleheader at El Dorado, Kansas)