Lady Saints Leave Eight On in One Run Loss

The Seward County Lady Saints continued to struggle with runners in scoring position on Thursday at Lady Saints Field in Liberal, dropping a 3-2 contest to the Barton Cougars while leaving eight runners on base in the seven inning contest. 

It was a pitcher's duel early on between Seward's Monique Ashley and Barton's Amanda Evans.  Barton had the first scoring chance of the day in the 1^st, but stranded a pair of runners while Seward did the same in the 2^nd to keep the game scoreless to the 3^rd. 

A leadoff double from Sage Harrison and a single behind her from Maycee Koontz put runners on second and third with nobody out for the Lady Saints in the 3^rd, but a lineout and an unconventional double play ended the Seward threat and kept it a 0-0 game through three. 

After Ashley worked a quick 4^th, Seward again threatened in the bottom of the inning as they strung together back to back two out singles before a pop out on the infield ended the inning to keep the contest scoreless. 

For the fourth straight inning, Seward put two on in the 5^th, and like the other three, the Lady Saints couldn't get the big hit, leaving both ducks on the pond at innings end to keep it a 0-0 game after five. 

Neither team got anything going in the 6^th and quickly the game flew to the 7^th without a score on the board. 

Barton finally woke up with the bats in the top of the 7^th as their first three hitters of the inning reached including a two run double to put the Cougars ahead 2-0.  After a sacrifice bunt, a two out single plated their third run of the inning to give Barton a 3-0 cushion as the teams headed to the bottom of the 7^th. 

Seward continued to put traffic on the bases in their final at bats in the 7^th and finally someone came through with the big hit as Jordan Garrison doubled home two to make it a one run game at 3-2 with one out in the frame.  With two chances to bring her home to tie the game and the middle of their lineup up to bat, the Lady Saints saw a weak groundout to the pitcher and a groundout to the shortstop bring the game to a close with the Cougars hanging on to take game one 3-2. 

Seward outhit Barton 8-7 in the game, but left eight on base in the loss.  Garrison, Kristyna Garcia, and Koontz each had two hits for the Lady Saints while Garrison had Seward's only two RBI's.  Ashley suffers the loss in the circle, allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out just two to fall to 20-3 on the year. 

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON GAME ONE BOX SCORE

Game two got off to about as bad of a start for Seward as they could have possibly imagined as the Cougars jumped out to a 9-0 lead after just 2 ½ innings before a spring storm moved into Liberal and forced the postponement of the game. 

The two teams will only resume and finish the game if it is deemed necessary for the conference standings and Region VI Tournament seedings at the completion of next week's games. 

Seward falls to 36-14 on the year with the loss and 11-4 in Jayhawk West play while Barton improves to 23-11 overall and 8-7 in league action. 

The Lady Saints will take the field again on Saturday when they host Colby in a 2:00 doubleheader in Liberal.