Cougars' Softball drops two in Garden City #GoBarton

The Barton Community College softball team struggled to find enough offensive firepower Saturday on the road at Garden City Community College as the Broncbusters took the pair of conference contests 10-0 in five innings and 12-5.

The Cougars drop to 1-7 in conference play and 5-17 on the season while Garden City improves its conference mark to 8-2 and 14-10 overall.

Barton will welcome in the conference leading and 5th ranked Grizzlies of Butler Community College Monday for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader.

Game One – Garden City 10, Barton 0
In the opener, the offense was hard to come by as the Cougars were unable to manufacture the big hit off Garden City's starter Tara Reid. The Broncbuster hurler held the Barton bats at bay allowing just three hits while issuing one walk in the 10-0 victory.

Lexi Dryden recorded the lone extra base hit for the Cougars with a leadoff double in the third with singles generated by Brooke McCollough and Bailey Stanley rounded out the Barton hitting.

Game Two – Garden City 12, Barton 5
Erasing a 3-0 deficit, the Cougars took a two-run lead in the fourth, but could not hold off the Broncbusters down the stretch. Garden City tied the game in the home half before piecing together seven runs in the final two frames breaking a 5-5 tie.

Barton's first run of the day came in the home half of the third with Kayli Dryden reaching on a one-out single before Kennedee Lara cut the deficit to 3-1 with an RBI double.

Freshman Teegan Krol sparked a Cougar rally in the fourth belting a leadoff blast to center for her third of the season. Seizing momentum the Barton offense capitalized off a Broncbuster error extending the inning as the Cougars accounted for three runs on a L. Dryden sac-fly, Makayla Chavez RBI single and Lara RBI single grasping a 5-3 advantage.

The lead would be short lived in the bottom half of the inning as a one-out walk led to a two-run McKayla Encinias homerun knotting things up at 5-5.

Unable to capitalize on Garden City's second error of the contest in the top of the fifth, the Broncbusters grasped back the momentum and lead for good scoring a pair on a Alexis Maestretti homerun and two-out E Johnson RBI single.

Barton's final threat came in the top of the sixth stranding Chavez and Lara singles.

The Broncbusters capped the scoring adding five runs in the bottom of the sixth highlighted on Arianna Griego's three-run blast.