The Barton Community College softball team opened up the home slate of the schedule Wednesday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep over the junior varsity of Central Christian College.
A pair of 10-run innings blew open game one's 24-7 victory and as the temperature dropped and the north wind increased, the Cougars were led by Jessica Morgan's dominating 13 strikeout performance to complete the sweep 7-0.
Improving to 4-2 on the early season, Barton will head to Oklahoma for a four-pack of weekend games. On Saturday the Cougars will take on Northern Oklahoma College-Enid at 1:00 p.m. followed by Sunday's 12:00 p.m. double-dip at Eastern Oklahoma State College.
Game 1 Recap
Following Kayla Beers sending the Tigers down in order on three strikeouts, Teagan Krol gave Barton the early first inning lead driving home Ireland Cotton's one-out single and Sydni Williams' first of three drawn walks in the opener as the Cougars would tack on another after a Central Christian error.
Going 2-for-2 out of the No. 9 hole, Lexi Dryden's one-out double pushed the lead to 4-0 in scoring on Cotton's single and subsequent two-base error on the Tigers.
Beers ran into some self-inflicted trouble in the third, plunking a pair of batters with the Tigers roping a single to load the bases. The damage seemed to be controlled following a sac fly for the second out but a walk extended the inning and a fly ball to the outfield got lost in the sun allowing the tying three runs to cross the dish.
Kayden Smith and Halie Stoneking collected hits in the first three at-bats of the home half of the third with Adreanna Lance clearing the diamond on a left field blast for her first of the season. Lance added two more RBI's in the Barton 10-run frame on her second time to plate connecting on her first double of the year.
The Tigers got three back in the top of the fourth, a hit driving in a one-out double and a two base error on a two-out infield high fly.
Smith's home half leadoff double kick-started another big inning as the Cougars rotated in a second wave to produce its second straight 10-run frame. Highlights included Williams' pair of hits drove in three runs, singles by Sammi Baldwin and Dryden drove in a run each, and Anahi Garcia's bases loaded walk pushed in another.
Beers struck out nine to match her career high, improving to 2-1 on the year. Julia Carey made her Cougar debut for the fifth, working arough a pair of walks before striking out her collegiate first two batters to end the game.
Game 2 Recap
Dryden drove in Barton's first two runs of game two, doubling home Kennedee Lara's second inning leadoff single before delivering a fourth inning sac fly to also plate Lara who led off the frame with a double.
Lara pushed the lead to 4-0 in the fifth with a two RBI triple before capping the Cougars scoring in the bottom of the sixth as Barton plated three runs in the inning adding an Anderson's ground out and Williams' sac fly.
The big story was within the circle was the performance of Morgan. Striking out 15 in her two games last weekend, Morgan struck out a career high 13 in the complete game improving to 2-1 on the year.
Morgan struck out the final batter of the first to strand a leadoff single, struck out the side in the second, then struck out leadoff in the third for a five batter stretch of swing-n-misses. Fanning two batters in each of the third, fourth, and fifth, Morgan again struck out the side in the sixth before a more routine 1-2-3 seventh inning including a comebacker to end the game.