Lady Saints Trade Run Rules With Barton

Going into Friday's Jayhawk West doubleheader action, the Seward County Lady Saints and Barton Lady Cougars were the two hottest teams in the league, having won a combined 15 straight games.  After Friday's double dip, neither team had a winning streak to brag about any longer as Barton hammered the Lady Saints 12-4 in a six inning run rule victory in game one before the Seward returned the favor in game two in an 8-0 shutout win to split the doubleheader.

The Lady Saints got on the board right away in game one, using a little bit of two out magic on a single from Kolby Hamilton and a double from Grace Petersen to jump in front 1-0. 

That lead didn't last long though as Seward hit the first Barton batter of the game, she moved to second on a wild pitch and then scored on a two run home run to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead. 

Seward tied things back up in the 3^rd, again scoring with two outs, this time on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Petersen to make it a 2-2 game. 

That's when all heck broke loose for the Lady Saints.  In the bottom of the 3^rd, Seward pitching walked the first four Barton hitters of the inning to force home a run and make it 3-2 Cougars.  The Lady Saints then unloaded the bases on a pair of wild pitches and a passed ball to gift Barton a 6-2 lead.  Another Seward walk followed by two more wild pitches and another passed ball scored that run and without ever talking the bat off of their shoulders, Barton had five runs in the inning and opened up a 7-2 lead on the Lady Saints. 

Unfortunately for Seward it was more of the same in the 4^th as a single, a hit batter, and a walk loaded the bases for the Cougars before a groundout plated one run and an illegal pitch plated another to make it 9-2 Barton. 

Petersen was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the 5^th to score a run for the Lady Saints and Vanessa Oakden walked to make it a 9-4 game, but Barton picked up a pair of singles in the bottom half to score one of their own to push their lead back to 10-4. 

After a 1-2-3 inning for the Lady Saints in the 6^th, the Cougars stepped on the gas once more, getting a leadoff home run and then another Seward walk and a Lady Saints error to score their second run of the inning to kick in the run rule as they took the opener 12-4. 

Barton scored their 12 runs in the game on just 5 hits as Lady Saints pitching walked 9 and hit another 2 in the loss.  Alexa O'Brien was tagged with the loss, failing to get out of the 3^rd inning while allowing 5 earned runs to fall to 13-7 on the year.  Seward finished with 7 hits of their own, 2 from Jaidyn Mawhinney at the top of the lineup while Petersen finished just 1 for 1, but drove home 3 runs. 

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON GAME ONE BOX SCORE

Once again the Lady Saints jumped in front in game two, this time with a huge top half of the 2^nd inning.  After getting an infield single to score their first run with one out, the Lady Saints turned on the jets with two outs in the frame, getting three straight RBI singles from Hamilton, Petersen, and Oakden to open their lead to 5-0 and an RBI double from Joe Ann Rapoza to score two more to make it 7-0. 

Going up against the top offensive team in the Jayhawk West, Seward starter Jaclyn Wagner kept the Cougar bats quiet early on, stranding a pair in the 2^nd and retiring Barton in order in the 3^rd to keep it a 7-0 game. 

The Lady Saints went down in order in the 4^th and Wagner stranded two more Barton runners in scoring position in the bottom half of the inning to keep the Cougars off the board and the Lady Saints up 7-0. 

Both teams went 1-2-3 in the 5^th and the game sailed to the 6^th with the 7-0 score sticking. 

In the top half of the 6^th the Lady Saints finally got some life going again on offense, using a leadoff single from Hannah Clark and a two out single from Kennedy Brunson to score her to make it an 8-0 game. 

After watching the first two Barton hitters of the 6^th inning reach, Wagner dug deep, retiring the next three Cougar hitters in order to end the threat and the game, giving the Lady Saints an 8-0 run rule win. 

Wagner handed the Cougars just their second shutout of the season in the game.  The sophomore scattered 6 hits while striking out 5 to improve to 15-5 on the year.  The Lady Saints outhit Barton 12-6 in the win, getting a 3 for 3 effort from Clark and 2 hits each from Brunson and Hamilton on the afternoon. 

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON GAME TWO BOX SCORE

The split snaps the Lady Saints 10 game winning streak, moving Seward to 28-14 overall and 11-3 in Jayhawk West play where they remain in first place at days end.  Barton sees their five game winning streak stopped as they go to 26-13 overall and 8-8 in West action on the year. 

Seward will now have their first break of over four days in over a month before returning to the diamond on Wednesday when they take on Garden City on the road at 2:00.