As February home openers go Wednesday afternoon couldn’t have gone much better for the Barton Community College softball team.
The weather was good, the first batter of the season hit a home run, four more joined her before the day was over and it ended with two wins. That makes for a pretty good opener.
Barton swept the Bethany College JV 11-3 and 9-3 to start the season off with a 2-0 mark.
“It was good to start the season off with a pair of wins,” Barton assistant coach Anna Voss said. “Our pitching staff came out strong and several players stepped up for key hits in both game one and game two.”
Ellis sophomore Bailey Hensley homer to left field on a 2-2 count to start the 2015 season with a bang. The Cougars added a run in the bottom of the second when Holly Posegate doubled and scored on a Bethany error.
The Cougars extended the lead in the third with five more runs to take a 7-1 lead. The big blow was a 3-run homer by freshman catcher Caitlin Garcia.
Barton ended the game by the run rule with three more in the fifth. Kylie Everill ended the game when she singled to score Taylor Bugner with two outs.
Hensley ended the game with three hits and three RBI. Posegate had a pair of hits and Garcia had three RBI on her homer.
Posegate, a freshman from Colorado, also picked up the win on the mound, going all five innings and allowing three runs on four hits. She struck out eight.
Barton had to work a little more in the second game but again used big innings on the way to the win. The Cougars found themselves down 3-0 heading into the bottom of the third when the first of those big innings took place.
Jenna Hosey, a freshman from Topeka, tied the game when she tripled to left scoring Samantha White and Hensley. Hosey scored on a ground out to give the Cougars a 4-3 lead.
The Cougars had back-to-back homers in the fifth, scoring three more times to push the lead to 7-3. Everill, a freshman from Utah, hit a 2-run shot to center scoring Erica Harper to make it 6-3. Posegate followed with a solo shot to right.
The home run parade continued when Harper hit a home run to center in the sixth scoring Hosey to extend the final of 9-3.
Bugner got the start for the Cougars, throwing 3.2 innings allowing the three runs. Everill came in and shut down the Swedes, striking out four and walking two with no hits in her 3.1 innings of work.