It was the doubleheader that Mother Nature did not want to take place. The date was moved back twice, then moved ahead by three hours in an effort to beat the forecasted rain Tuesday.
But, it rained anyway.
Despite the brief morning rain and cool temperatures, the Barton softball team finally got its regular season finale in against Garden City.
In what turned out to be a meaningless twinbill as far as the standings and seeding for the Region VI tournament is concerned, the Cougars dropped both games to the Broncbusters. Garden City won the first game 10-2 and capped off the day with an 8-4 win in the second game.
The same two teams will go at it again in the opening round of the Region VI tournament Friday as the fourth and fifth seed.
Despite losing both games, Barton is the No. 4 seed in the Region VI, finishing with a 14-14 mark in the Jayhawk West. Garden City finished fifth with a 12-16 record.
In the opener Tuesday, which started at 10 am and was stopped for a while due to the short rain shower that moved through Great Bend, the Cougars actually out-hit Garden City 14-13. But seven errors by Barton as well as 11 runners left of base proved to be the downfall for the Cougars.
Garden City scored three times in the third and four times in the fourth to take a 7-0 lead on the way to the win. Morgan Michaelis and Andreana Reynolds each had three hits for Barton.
In the second game, Garden City score three times in each the sixth and seventh inning to secure the sweep. Barton cut lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth with three runs of its own to make things interesting before Garden tacked on those three insurance runs in the seventh.
Reynolds and Maggie Schuetz each had two hits including a double in the loss.
Barton and Garden will match up in that first round Region VI game at 3 pm Friday at Legends Park in Dodge City. The winner will get the winner of the Butler-Pratt contest Saturday afternoon while the loser will play the loser of that Butler-Pratt game Saturday morning.

Game 1
Garden City 10, Barton 2
Garden 003 402 1 – 10 13 2
Barton 000 200 0 – 2 14 7
Akers and Jimenez; Panning and Reynolds. W – Akers. L – Panning (9-9). 2B – Vessels 2, Garden; Reynolds, Sharples, Barton. HR – Jimenez, Garden.

Game 2
Garden City 8, Barton 4
Garden 100 013 3 – 8 12 3
Barton 001 003 0 – 4 6 4
Montiel, Brawner (5) and Jimenez; Frakes and Schuetz. W – Montiel. L – Frakes (0-3). S – Brawner. 2B – Pop, Reynolds, Schutez, Barton. HR – Vessels, Jimenez, Garden.