Barton Softball splits in Dodge City #GoBarton

The Barton Community College softball team split a pair of conference games Sunday at Dodge Community College as the Cougars easily won game one 13-4 in five innings before a rally was left for naught as the Conquistadors pulled out their own three run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning for a walk-off 14-13 extra frame win to salvage the split. The results leave the Cougars at 10-8 in fourth place of the Jayhawk and 13-17 overall while Dodge City stands at 5-13 in league play and 12-24 overall. Barton's next field time will come Wednesday in a 2:00 p.m. conference doubleheader at Northwest Kansas Technical College (2-10, 7-17) in Goodland, Kansas.

The Cougars pounded out twenty-eight hits in the doubleheader, five coming off the bat of Kat Frakes in batting .556 on the day while driving in five of Barton's twenty-six runs.

The Topeka sophomore connected on three of her doubles in the opener, leading Barton to a two run first inning at-bat before putting the Cougars ahead for good with a third inning RBI double. Knocking a double to center in the fourth to increase the lead again, Frakes capped her perfect four plate appearances with an RBI single in the final fifth inning of Barton's run-rule victory.

Also having a good day at the late was Lyons sophomore Morgan Michaelis in connecting on three home runs in taking over the team lead with seven on the season. Michaelis capped the game one victory in style, launching a two-out 3-run bomb in the fifth increasing Barton's lead to ten in sealing the shortened game victory.

Allison Panning earned the victory in the circle improving to 7-7 on the season in keeping the Conquistadors quiet on five hits while striking out a career high six batters.

Michaelis was one of five Cougars to hit extra bases in the nightcap, both coming on big fly varieties with the first breaking a 7-all tie in the fourth with a two-run homer to left and the second breaking an 11-all tie giving Barton a two run lead in the top of the 8th inning.

All but one Cougar in the game two lineup collected a hit as Hailey Pop and Maggie Schuetz each going 3-for-4 in combing for three doubles and driving in six runs. Two of the doubles came from Pop, with the first two-bagger driving in two third inning runs cutting Barton's deficit to 6-3 while the second scored on Michaelis' 8th inning go-ahead dinger.

Jaila Jordan lead off the fourth with the first of the Oklahoma freshman's doubles in the game, advancing to third on a stolen base before scoring a Schuetz single in cutting the deficit to two.

Trailing 10-9 in the 7th, following Emma Horsch's one-out walk and first collegiate stolen base, Jordan banged out her second double for the game tying RBI. Swiping her second and team leading seventh stolen base, Schuetz completed her three RBI contest driving Jordan to the dish with a single to center giving Barton an 11-10 lead.

A two-out error extended the game to extra frames as a one-out single and stolen base would score on Barton's fourth error of the game.

Following Michaelis potential game winning two-run shot in the top of the 8th, Horsch struggled to find the zone walking three of the first four batters to load the bases. Pushing in the next run on a walk as well, Dodge City tied it up on a ground out before getting the walk-off victory as Pop's diving stop and subsequent throw for the final out was not in time allowing the Conquistadors to complete the come-back victory and send Horsch to 6-9 on the season in the circle.