In perhaps its biggest team-wide effort of the season, the Barton Community College softball team rallied from a five run deficit Thursday at Cougar Field to defeat Dodge City Community College 11-5. Winning the best of three first round series improves Barton to 33-18 on the season while more importantly advances the Lady Cougars to the final four of Region VI Division I softball tournament play for the third straight season while ending Dodge City's season at 23-22. Barton will next head to El Dorado, Kansas, where the Lady Cougars will take on top seed and Western Division champion Butler Community College as the 33-13 Grizzlies play tournament host. First pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m. as the Lady Cougars and Grizzlies will follow the 12:00 p.m. between Seward County Community College and Garden City Community College.
It wasn't the start for the rubber match of the first round best of three series as Barton starter Taylor Bugner struggled to get in sync with the strike zone. Having walked the first three batters of the game, Bugner escaped damage as the Garden Plain freshman induced three pop-ups to end the inning. Bugner ran up against trouble again the second following a leadoff walk and one-out walk, but induced a fielder's choice to get within one-out of escaping another jam. Having hit her first home run of the season a day prior against Bugner, Dodge City's Mattison Johnson connected for her second homerun with a three-run shot to left. Another walk ensued before the Conquistadors' leading homerun hitter Shelby Bowman connected on her ninth of the season driving Bugner from the game on the Dodge City 5-0 lead.
The Lady Cougars fought back in the home half getting a Posegate leadoff single. A Jenna Hosey fielder's choice later, McKenna Mauler put the ball in play and an errant throw to second gave Barton runners at the corners. Following a strikeout, Caitlin Garcia's grounder resulted in the second error of the inning scoring Hosey keeping the inning alive. Bailey Hensley made the Conquistadors pay with a two RBI single to left field cutting the deficit to two.
Garcia came up big in the third inning as Dodge City attempted a two-out steal but her laser from behind the dish to Hensley covering the bag eliminated the threat with the top of the lineup in the batter's box.
Barton was headed to strand an Erica Harper leadoff single but a Conquistador two-out infield error kept the inning alive and one batter later Mauler delivered a single up the middle drawing Barton to within one.
Both teams went quiet in the fourth and fifth innings as a leadoff fourth inning single by Lindsey Karlin was the lone hit although Dodge City did strand a two-out walk to join Karlin in the fourth and again were only able to muster a two out walk in the sixth.
As the Lady Cougars were down to their final six outs and the season on the brink with the 6-7-8 batters in the lineup coming to the plate, the biggest at-bat of the season came from Hosey. Down in the count 1-2, the Topeka freshman shortstop fouled off ten pitches eventually drawing the leadoff walk on reliever Jordan Mecham. Two pitches later Mauler laid down a perfect bunt resulting on another Conquistador error allowing Hosey to score to tie the game. Following a Bakovich walk, Dodge City again went to the pen bringing starting pitcher Lauren Kelly back in the ball game. Garcia did her part with a sacrifice bunt moving Bakovich into scoring position as the top of the lineup came to the plate. Barton would benefit again by a Dodge City error aided by the afternoon sun as Hensley's pop up fell to the infield dirt. Being held to without a hit for her first three at-bats, Brianna Ward pushed the Lady Cougars over the hump with a single to left field scoring Bakovich for the game winner. Harper followed with a single to right field driving in two more with a wild pitch tacking on another scoring Ward. One pitch later Kylie Everill mashed her fourteenth homerun of the season putting the final two numbers on the board in the Lady Cougars' seven run inning.
Holly Posegate, who relieved Bugner to get the final out in the second, kept Dodge City in check for the final 5.1 innings scattering three hits while striking out two of her five batters in the final inning to improve to 17-7.
Hensley, Harper, and Mauler each had two hits in the game leading a 9-6 advantage at the plate capitalizing on seven Dodge City errors while playing near flawless in the field with zero errors after committing three in the previous day's doubleheader.
Barton's next opponent will be the Grizzlies with the loser playing the following 4:00 p.m. elimination game with the winner advancing to the 6:00 p.m. game. Complete bracket information can be found on the KJCCC website at www.kjccc.org.