Butler sweeps Barton, now alone in first place

The Butler softball team moved into sole possession of first place in the Jayhawk West Conference with a doubleheader sweep of Barton on Wednesday at East Park by scores of 7-0 in the first game and 8-3 in the second game.

With the win, Butler is now 16-12 overall and 5-1 in the Jayhawk West. Garden City and Seward County are tied for second in the league with 4-2 records.

Butler will now prepare for the Buco Bash Classic this weekend at East Park. There are 10 teams coming to the event and Butler will play two games each day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday's games are scheduled against Maplewoods (Mo.) at 3:30 p.m. and Iowa Central at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Butler will play Western Nebraska at 3 p.m. and Indian Hills at 8 p.m. Then on Sunday, Butler finished the tournament with a 10 a.m. game against Eastern Oklahoma State and a game at noon against Crowder (Mo.).

GAME 1

Butler pitchers dominated Barton's hitters in throwing a combined shutout. Mac Millspaugh started the game and threw the first five innings, striking out eight of the 16 hitters she faced, allowing no walks and just one hit, a single in the second inning.

Heather Ryder came on in relief, throwing two shutout innings without allowing a hit while striking out two batters, giving Butler's staff 10 strikeouts in the seven-inning game.

Offensively, Butler broke out for three runs in the third inning. Rachel Harper led off with a triple and scored on a ball put in play by Kelsey Berlin for the first run. Ashley Malone and Kaitlyn Wolken had back-to-back hits to drive in runs to make it 3-0.

In the fourth inning, Harper doubled to drive in Mac Millspaugh. Harper later scored on an RBI sacrifice fly by Abby Furstenberg.

In the fifth inning, Butler added its final two runs. Kaitlyn Wolken drove in another run with another double and scored on a double by Mac Millspaugh to make it 7-0.

Ashley Malone was 3-3 at the plate in the game while Harper, Wolken and Mac Millspaugh each had two hits apiece in the game.

GAME 2

Kelsey Berlin started in the circle for the Grizzlies and retired the first 11 batters she faced on her way to pitching four scoreless innings. Heather Ryder allowed three unearned runs over the next two innings and Mac Millspaugh pitched a scoreless seventh inning to finish off the game.

Offensively, Butler scored at least one run in five of the six innings in which they batted. Kelsey Berlin and Mac Millspaugh drove in two runs apiece. Berlin, Abby Furstenberg and Kelci Garza each had two hits in the game.