The Barton Community College softball team earned its first sweep of the year on Wednesday afternoon, knocking off Colby twice at Cougar Fields 3-2 and 4-2.
The wins give Barton the No. 4 seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region VI playoffs and moved BCC to 3-27 overall and 3-11 in the region.
Colby fell to 5-29 overall and 1-13 in the region.
Barton lost a pair to Seward Monday at Cougar Fields, taking the second game into the seventh inning at 0-0 before eventually losing 5-0. Barton lost the opener 9-0.
Barton and Colby will meet again in the opening round of the playoffs in early May. The Cougars will close out their conference slate hosting Butler Wednesday of next week.
BCC won the opener against Colby with some late inning heroics.
The two teams went to the final inning scoreless before Colby put a pair of runs on the board for a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
Tessa Sterling started the inning off for Barton with a single to center and moved to second when Anna Voss walked. A fielder’s choice moved Sterling to third.
Carly Schroeder doubled to right, scoring Sterling and moving Amanda Lanigan to third.
Then, an infield single by Chelsea Bauer loaded the bases with one out for Alyssa Ybarra. Ybarra, the Cougars’ leading hitter on the season, came through with a double to right center to score Lanigan and Schroeder and give Barton the 3-2 win.
Karen Harris went the distance to pick up the win for the Cougars, giving up just four hits in her seven innings of work. She struck out five and walked three. Bauer had 3 hits for Barton while Ybarra had 2 hits including the game winner.
In the nightcap, Colby took a 2-0 lead before Barton battled back to take the lead in the third inning with a four-run inning. From there the Cougars rode the relief effort of Sarah Schmidt pitching, allowing just two hits in her five innings of work to pick up the win.
In Barton’s key third inning, the first two batters were retired before the Cougars strung together six consecutive base runners.
Sterling again started things with a single and moved to second when Alex Rodriguez was hit by a pitch. A Colby error kept the inning alive and Voss made them pay with a single to tie the game.
Schroeder then delivered the lead to the Cougars with a two-run single and a 4-2 Barton lead that stood up for the win.