WICHITA — The Barton Community College softball team dug tooth-and-nails to avoid elimination against Seward on Saturday in the NJCAA Region VI tournament, but a 7-5 extra-inning loss dropped the Lady Cougars out of contention.
Barton, which finishes the year 10-38, fell 4-0 to No. 5 seed Colby earlier in the day at Wilkins Stadium on the Wichita State University campus to drop into the elimination bracket.
Seward climbed to a 4-0 lead, but Barton was able to cut the lead in half in the fifth inning.
Seward added one run in the top of the seventh, but Barton scored three runs, including two on a two-out single from Tomi Thompson to force the game into extra innings.
The Lady Saints scored two runs in the top of the ninth to secure the win.
In Game 1 of the tournament, Barton struggled against Colby pitcher Dominique Padilla, who went all seven innings.
The Lady Cougars had four hits, all singles. They stranded five runners on base.
Rachel Baker pitched for Barton, allowing three earned runs on seven hits. She had six strikeouts.

Individuals shine
at Region VI track meet
HUTCHINSON — Barton had 11 first-place finishers at the NJCAA Region VI track and field meet on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Marcela Solano was the first gold medalist, winning the hammer throw with a distance of 181-feet, one inch. Janee Mickens finished first in the shot put.
Also, in the women’s competition, Katherine Miroshnikova took home gold in the 1,500-meter run (4:55.26) and Agata Klimovich finished first in the 400 dash (56.10).
In the men’s competition, Jahryl Bowry finished first in the long jump (24-9) and Tyler Rathke took first in the discus (159-9).
Akeem Haynes outran the field in the 100 dash (10.26), Tayron Reyes took first in the 800 run (1:52.97), Keirstin Lightbourne took first place in the 400 hurdles (53.20) and Aliaksandr Linnik won the 200 (20.73).
The men’s 4x100 relay team, Haynes, Demetrius Lindo, Kevin Nichols and Travis Thornhill, finished in first place with a time of 40.04.

                                                            — Kevin Price