Barton takes over sole possession of Jayhawk West lead

Barton takes over sole possession of Jayhawk West lead
The Barton County Community College softball team now stands alone on top of the Jayhawk West standings after sweeping its 3rd straight West doubleheader with 5-0 and 8-4 wins at Garden City Thursday. Barton is now 10-2 in the West with 4 games remaining. The Cougars are 18-19 overall and winners of 16 of their last 21 games. Pratt is currently in 2nd place at 9-3. Dodge City and Seward County both have 5 losses. Garden City fell to 2-8 in the West and 12-29 overall.

Highlights
Barton never trailed in the 1st game as Karina Ramirez shutdown the Broncbuster offense. Garden City had just 2 hits in the game and Ramirez walked only one batter, facing just 3 over the minimum in the win. In fact, Ramirez took a perfect game into the 4th, where she walked her only batter. The sophomore went into the 6th with the no-hitter before allowing the only two singles of the game. The win improved her to 9-3 this season and was her 4th complete game shutout on the mound.

The only run that Barton needed they scored in the 2nd when Vanessa Roy's ground ball scored Amanda Baker. The Cougars gave Ramirez some breathing room with 3 more runs in the 5th. Ramirez drove in 2 of the runs with a single that scored Taylor Gorjiyan and Megan Suiter. Suiter had driven in Karah Yeakley with a single. Suiter scored again in the 7th on a Maggie McCoy fly ball.

The Cougars found the going tougher in the 2nd game against the last-place team in the West. Garden matched Barton through 4 innings and it took a big final inning by the Cougars to capture the win. The two clubs were tied at 4-all in the 4th inning when Coach Tom Curtis decided to bring Ramirez back to the mound to finish out the day. Ramirez shut down the Bronbusters during the final 4 innings on just 4 hits to get the win. That made Ramirez 10-3 on the season with a 1.02 ERA.

The Cougars took a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st as Gorjiyan and McCoy drove in Ashlee Earley and Suiter. Garden matched that total in the bottom of the inning on 3 hits. The Cougars moved the lead to 3-2 in the 2nd as an Earley ground out scored Jessica DeWild. Barton bumped that lead to 4-2 in the 4th when Earley singled in DeWild. Garden quickly evened the score in the bottom of the inning at 4-all.

That is where the game stayed until the top of the 7th when Barton finally retook the lead. Ramirez gave the Cougars a 5-4 lead with a single that scored Suiter. McCoy then doubled in Gorjiyan and Baker put the nail in the coffin with a single that scored both Ramirez and McCoy for the 8-4 win.

Barton still has West games against Colby at home Tuesday and at Dodge City Wednesday. Colby is 5-7 in the West and Dodge is 7-5. Pratt still has Garden and Seward on those same days. Dodge and Seward (both with 5 losses) also play each other before the season is over.

Stats
Stats can be found on the Barton website at www.bartonccc.edu/sports

Next
April 17-18 – at Colby Tournament (Non conference play at Colby)