Garden City drops series opener to Barton

Garden City, KS-It was a first inning to forget. 

Barton batted through the order scoring six runs before most fans had taken their seat, Chloe Enslinger and Peyton McCormick each homered, and the Cougars run-ruled Garden City, 17-2 in game one Wednesday afternoon at Tangeman Sports Complex. 

Yina Ballesta Vargas lasted only two innings, allowing 10 runs on 11 hits-losing her third straight decision to drop to 5-6 on the year. 

Vargas ran into trouble right away in the first. Laney Wood smacked a leadoff double, Allyson McDougal smoked an RBI single, and Enslinger blasted a two-run homer to make it 3-0. Two batters later, Mia Mascarenas lifted a base hit to right; then scored on Morgan Thatcher's two-run triple, and the Cougars had a 6-0 advantage. 

The second inning was almost a carbon copy of the first. Enslinger singled home two, Elina Bartlett stroked an RBI single, and Karter Alvord looped an run-scoring base hit to center to make it 10-0. 

Barton added three more in the fourth, three in the fifth and one in the fifth, capping off a 17-run outburst that produced their fifth consecutive win. They improved to 8-5 overall and 5-0 in conference. 

Garden City, which was limited to just five hits, lost their fourth straight game to fall to 9-8 overall and 1-2 in conference. Daryelin Rivas Chavez, who missed the Otero series, went 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored. The rest of the team was a combined 3-for-15.