The Barton Community College softball team split a pair of games Thursday in Harrison, Arkansas, defeating the host North Arkansas College in five innings 15-1 before having a lead slide away in the final two innings in losing 5-4 to undefeated Southwest Tennessee Community College.
Now 3-4 on the season, Barton's next few games may be at the mercy of Mother Nature as the Cougars are scheduled to play in a Monday 2:00 p.m. doubleheader at Sterling College JV with a Thursday 1:00 p.m. twinbill slated hosting Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa. The Cougars begin conference play Saturday at Independence Community College.
Barton jumped on the Pioneers with a seven run spot in the second before piling on four in the ensuing inning before putting the game away with another four-pack of runs in the clinching fifth.
Ten Cougars accounted for the fifteen hits with Hailey Pop going 3-for-3 driving in three runs, a pair of those crossing the plate in the big second inning on the sophomore's first of two doubles in the contest. One inning later another double plated the Cougars' ninth run of the day with Betsy Parmley tacking on another for the second of her RBIs having followed Pop an inning earlier with an RBI double.
In the circle Tia Kohl evened up the freshman's record on the year to 2-2 in scattering three hits with no walks in the five innings of work while striking out seven.
NAC pushed across a solo run in the fourth as a one-out double scored following an error and single to center but it wasn't near enough to extend the contest in falling to 1-8 on the year.
Barton was outhit 10-8 in game two of the afternoon with Southwest Tennessee's first hit coming via the long ball on a two run one out dinger.
Nasadiya Salazar's one out double led to Barton cutting the deficit in half in the Cougars' second time to the plate but the Saluqis answered in the home half getting a two-out RBI single.
Parmley delivered her second double of the day and first of two in the nightcap by following Pop's leadoff walk to begin the third. One out later Brooke McCollough drove a 2-2 pitch to center for the freshman's team leading second big fly of the year in putting Barton up 4-3.
The lead remained into the bottom of the sixth when costly errors helped solo runs cross the plate giving the Saluqis the eventual win.
Karsyn Smith, who relieved Emma Horsch with no outs in the fifth inning to strand a pair of runners, got the first two outs of the sixth but lost a 1-2 count to an eventual inning extending single. One pitch later another single found the grass with an error on the play resulting the tying run crossing the plate.
A pair of singles and hit by pitch loaded up the bases in the bottom of the seventh but Smith's strikeout wasn't enough as an infield error on the ensuing ball put in play allowed the winning run to cross.
Six errors in the game allowed three runs to cross unearned with two earned runs credited to Horsch's four innings in the circle. Smith took her first loss on the season (0-1) after 2.1 innings of work despite both runs under her watch scoring unearned.
Parmley, Pop, and Salazar each had three hits in the two games with McCollough leading with four RBI and four walks to go along w a pair of hits for an .857 on-base percentage.