The Barton Community College softball team split each of its two days of action on a weekend swing through Oklahoma.
The Cougars opened up on Saturday at Northern Oklahoma College-Enid, dropping the first game 6-4 before taking the second in a five inning 8-0 shutout.
Traveling the near four hours to the southeast part of the state, Barton took the first game 7-3 at Eastern Oklahoma State College but fell in the weekend finale 4-3 in walk-off fashion.
Now 6-4 on the season, Barton was to have a final tune-up on Tuesday hosting Bethany College JV but since has been cancelled due to low temperatures. The Cougars will now take the week indoors preparing for Saturday's home 1:00 p.m. conference opening doubleheader against Garden City Community College.
Both Cougar pitchers went 1-1 on the weekend as each move to 3-2 on the year. Game one starter Kayla Beers pitching 10.1 innings, striking out four, earning the victory Sunday allowing just two earned runs of the three scored. Jessica Morgan took over for each of the second games, earning the victory over NOC-Enid spinning a two-hitter before taking the hard luck loss on Sunday despite striking out eight of her twelve on the weekend.
Teegan Krol led the Barton offense batting .545, collecting six hits including a double and home run in driving across five runs. Halie Stoneking also connected on her first home run of the season, joined by Kennedee Lara in collecting five total hits each. Lexi Dryden again solidified the bottom of the lineup batting .333 with four RBI.
Recaps vs NOC-Enid
The Jets took the early lead of the opener on Beers, connecting on a single followed by a walk before a two out walk loaded the bases. Staying alive despite down 0-2 in the count, the Jets worked a full count before driving a two RBI hit to center.
Stranding four through the first three innings including a pair of leadoff hits, the Cougars broke through in the fourth on Stoneking's first home run of the season to plate Krol in tying it up.
Beers found her groove after the first inning and seemed to have the Jet bats in check striking out three in the fourth but ran across trouble again in a decisive four run fifth inning.
The Jets led off the frame with a double and walk. Following a sac bunt, loaded the bases drawing another full count walk. Scoring a run on a subsequent ground out, the Jets got the extra big hit on the first pitch of the next batter for a three-run home run building a 6-2 lead.
Barton rallied with two outs in the ensuing sixth, Krol extending the inning with a single followed by Stoneking's reach on error and Adreanna Lance loading up the bags drawing a walk. Down in the count 0-2, Dryden stayed firm at the plate cutting the deficit in half with a two-run RBI single.
Sydni Williams took over in the circle for the final out of the fifth, surrendering just a two-out reach on error in the sixth but Lance took care of the runner gunning out a steal attempt.
Ireland Cotton gave the Cougars hope in the seventh, leading off the frame with her second hit of the contest but became one of Barton's seven stranded runners as the Jets took care of the next three batters.
Cotton and Krol each had two of the team's total eight hits as the Cougars stranded seven. Beers took the loss dropping to 2-2.
A six run first inning was all the Cougars needed in game two, adding in two more runs in the second on the way to the 8-0 blanking as Morgan tossed a two-hitter while striking out four.
Barton did their damage on two-outs, keeping Kayden Smith's leadoff double alive with Jaysa Anderson's RBI double followed by RBI singles from Lara and Krol. Stoneking fought off two strikes to extend the inning further before spinning around the bases on Lance's triple. Dryden then fought through eight pitches in putting the ball in play resulting in a Jet error and Lance to cross the dish with the Cougars' sixth run.
Again the Cougars mounted a two-out rally in the second, Lara's team leading third hit of the game extended the opportunity with Krol sending a full-count pitch over the left field fence for her first round tripper of the year capping the 8-0 victory.
Recaps vs Eastern Oklahoma State College
Making the near four hour trip to southeast Oklahoma, the Cougars brought the momentum with them in scoring in each of the five innings to take the opener 7-3.
Anderson's double, the first of her two hits in the game, drove home the lone first inning run with Dryden tacking on a solo run with a second inning run producer.
Two hits on either side of a walk loaded the Mountaineer bases in the home half of the second frame, pushing one across in drawing another walk with the tying run plating on a fielder's choice.
Williams and Anderson got the Barton response going in the third, Williams drawing a walk before scoring on Anderson's single and a two base Mountaineer error. Krol followed with an RBI double and after Stoneking drew a walk, Lance laced an RBI single putting Barton up 5-2.
Beers induced three fly-outs to silence the Mountaineers in the home half for the first of two 1-2-3 innings in slinging the four hit, five strikeout performance in 5.2 innings.
The Cougars produced icing on the cake solo runs in the fourth and fifth frames.
Cotton hit by pitch began the fourth with Williams following with a single. Down to their final out after reaching on a fielder's choice, Lara stole second base inducing an error resulting in Cotton trotting home.
Barton returned the favor in the home half as a two-out single was compounded by consecutive errors but the Cougars got the run back in the fifth on Smith's RBI single driving in Lance's leadoff hit pushed the margin to its final four runs.
Williams closed out the remaining 1.1 innings including chalking up a pair of strikeouts.
In the weekend finale, a two-out Williams double followed by Anderson's single put the Cougars on the board first.
Essentially sailing through the first three innings striking out four Mountaineers, a Barton error opened up the fourth in three runs crossing the plate after a single, a 2-RBI double, and a RBI single. Morgan struck out the next batter with the Cougars rolling up a Cotton-Lara double play to prevent further damage in trailing 3-1.
The Cougars had opportunities throughout, stranding ten in the game, finally breaking through in the sixth. Anderson led off the inning with her second hit of the game by doubling to left field then advancing to third on Lara's sac bunt. Krol's RBI single sliced the deficit with Dryden completing her 2-for-3 game driving a 1-2 pitch, two-out single to left.
Cotton led off the seventh drawing a walk but was erased from the paths in being caught stealing second. Williams and Anderson also drew walks and following a Lara fielder's choice, got a little Mountaineer help on Krol's infield grounder to load the bases on the error but Barton couldn't convert on the two-out opportunity.
Morgan struck out the first Mountaineer of the home half but couldn't' get the trigger pulled on a 2-2 count as the winning run drew the walk. One pitch later a single to the outfield was misplayed opening the track meet around the bases for the winning run despite Morgan's eight strikeout and four hit performance.