The Barton Community College softball team closed out the home turf at Cougar Field with a regular season finale run-ruled shortened sweep over Northwest Kansas Technical College.
Belting four home runs in the opener including three in the nine-run third frame, Barton won 15-0 then put game two over the run-rule threshold with a six-run fourth highlighted by a three-run fence clearer for a 10-2 clinching series victory.
Barton ends the regular season at 24-20, currently in fourth place of the conference standings at 18-14. Northwest Tech drops to 3-27 in league and 4-38 overall.
The Cougars enter post-season play on Friday in the Region VI Championship held at Dodge City's Legend Park. Most likely the fourth seed, Barton has a shot to move up to the third seed should fifth place Seward County sweep third place Colby in Sunday's season finale.
Barton spread the wealth with eleven Cougars collecting a hit to outpound the Mavericks 25-6, eleven coming on extra base hits including five home runs. Sydni Williams led with a 5-of-6 performance from the plate including connecting on her 9th home run of the season in game one before earning the victory in game two spinning four innings and striking out a career high seven improving to 2-2 on the year.
Kennedee Lara was also near perfect from the plate on a 4-of-5 afternoon and team tying four RBI's in being joined by a trio of other Cougars.
Adreanna Lance drove in all four of hers in the first game, a first inning run producing single before highlighting Barton's 9-run third frame in belting two home runs as the Cougars sent twelve to the plate.
Prior to Lance's second home run of the big inning, Savannah Benson went yard to set up the back-to-back jacks in the frame. Connecting on two home runs in her three at-bats April 6th in Pratt, Benson made her fourth at-bat of the season equally memorable by driving her third fence clearer beyond left center. In game two Benson nearly hit out another but the line drive shot to center instead banged mid-fence for an RBI single for Barton's final tenth run.
Not to be outdone in the yard work was the Cougars' leading bomber Teegan Krol. Driving in a run in the first inning of game two, Krol highlighted the Cougars' six-run fourth frame by unleashing a no-doubter to left field to drive three across the dish for a team leading 50 RBIs. The blast was the 14th of the year for the sophomore, jumping into a 6th place tie all-time in program history with Jayden Gonzales who achieved the feat in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Kayla Beers improved to 10-9 on the year by hurling three innings of game one with Elizabeth Horsch pitching the final two innings in preserving the shut out. Horsch also relieved Williams in game two's fifth inning, striking out two in the frame but a pair of two-out errors allowed the Mavericks to plate their lone runs of the afternoon and spoil the twinbill shutout.
Nine sophomores, along with their families, were recognized following the game one win. Those included were Lexi Dryden, Jaycee Patton, Savannah Benson, Adreanna Lance, Kennedy Lara, Elizabeth Horsch, Sammi Baldwin, Teegan Krol, and Anahi Garcia. Photos from the festivities