Barton softball utilizes the long ball for sweep of Dodge City #GoBarton

The Barton Community College softball team went deep eight times Thursday at Cougar Field to sweep Dodge City Community College 20-1 in five innings followed by an 11-4 cap in game two.

The Cougars pinned six on the scoreboard in their first at-bat before breaking the game open with 13 runs in the third inning for the squad's largest margin of victory this season.

Facing a four-run deficit into the third inning of game two, the Cougars took the lead with a five-run at-bat, added another pair in the fifth before tacking on four more in the sixth in completing the regular season sweep over the Conquistadors.

Barton improves to 20-10 for fourth place of the conference standings and 26-20 overall while Dodge City suffers their eighth straight defeat dropping to 12-20 and 17-28 overall.

Originally scheduled for Saturday, weather has forced the Cougars' regular season finale in Goodland to Sunday in a 2:00 p.m. first pitch at Northwest Kansas Technical College. Barton will then begin post-season play at the Region VI Tournament taking place May 5-6 at Dodge City's Legends Park.

In playing what could be the last time at Cougar Field for the 2023 season, the Cougars pounded out 31 hits with eight leaving the yard, highlighted by Sydni Williams' three home runs, Jenna Henderson's fourth in as many games, and three coming from the Dryden twins as Laci connected on a pair of fence clearers including a grand slam with Lani recording her first collegiate round tripper.

Williams connected on three straight plate appearances to start game one for her 11th, 12th, 13th of the season as the sophomore drove in 9 runs on the day, six in the opener. Williams' first inning three-run shot erased Dodge City's early lead, the next led off the second inning, with her third coming on a two-run shot in the third frame.

In addition to Williams' third inning dinger, Laci Dryden cleared the bags on a grand slam in Barton's thirteen run at-bat, then belted her second of the day and fourth of the year to cap the Cougars' scoring in game two on a three-run fence clearer for her 4th of the year and 8th RBI of the day.

Barton's five run first at-bat concluded on Henderson's 8th home run of the season, the fourth straight game with a home run and extending the sophomore transfer's hit streak to five straight.

In addition to Lani Dryden's game two third inning leadoff homer that 'woke up' the Cougars, Jaysa Anderson followed Williams' 2-RBI single with a 2-run fence clearer for her 11th of the year putting Barton ahead for good. Later in the fifth, Williams's RBI double and Anderson's RBI single added two more to the lead for a 7-4 advantage.

Kayla Beers, who improved to 6-2 in the circle by hurling the final 4.2 innings of game two relief of Henderson, helped her cause with just her second collegiate hit in her three-year Barton career to open up the sixth. Mackenzie Haslett's sacrifice fly plated pinch-runner Shea Alfrey with the day's scoring concluding on the three-run, second deep drive of the day from Laci Dryden.

Jessica Morgan spun the first four innings of the opener, improving to 9-3 on the year, as Julia Carey closed out the final fifth frame.

Other Game Notes:
Halie Stoneking matched Williams' team high five hits out of the leadoff spot moving into the 3rd slot on the program career list with 147 – 9 off the No. 2 spot held by Erica Harper ('13-15) and 15 from Maddison Schofield's record 162 ('15-17). Scoring five runs, Stoneking increased her program record to 143 runs while moving up to the 9th spot of a single season achievement. Connecting on a game one, third inning RBI double, Stoneking moved to within one of second all-time while her three RBI on the day moved the super-sophomore into 3rd place all-time with 98 runs batted in. Swiping a base late in game two, Stoneking recorded her 21st of the year to a 7th place single season standing while also drawing to within one of Schofield's program record 42 swiped bags.

Anderson, who owns the program record 30-straight games with a hit, went 4-of-6 on Thursday, moving into the 8th all-time hit slot. The 11th home run of the year upped Anderson's 9th all-time total to 16 with her 3 RBI moving into the top ten of run producers.