Concordia, KS- The Cloud County Softball team went 1-3 in their 2016 Spring Classic. Nine teams attended the event and each team played four games. 

Cloud County 10 Riverland 1

The T-Birds started the weekend off right as they jumped on Riverland with three runs in the first inning. Cloud then added a run in the second and exploded for five in the 3rd. 

Lauryn Catron had three hits on the day including two doubles. Lexi Duhrkop and Samantha Shafer each had two hits a piece. 

Duhrkop was solid on the mound as well going all 5 innings, allowing 1 earned run and striking out 6. 

Cloud County 9 Iowa Western 12

The T-Birds took on Iowa Western Community College in game two of the weekend. 

Cloud got on the board early with a run in the bottom of the first on a sac fly from Bayleigh Cope scoring Jaycee Worrell. Leslie Schuetz also doubled in the inning. The T-Birds remained ahead 1-0 before the Reivers put up three runs in the 4th and 5th innings to grab the lead. Iowa Western scored two more in the top of the 6th before Cloud launched a comeback. 

Down 8-1 in the bottom of the 6th, the T-Birds plated four runs to cut the lead to 8-5. The big blow in the inning came on a two RBI double by Ann Flach. Iowa Western answered with four more in the top of the 7th and led 12-5. Four of the first five T-Bird hitters reached in the bottom of the 7th and Cloud added four more runs but the rally fell short and Cloud lost 12-9. 

Flach was 2-4 and drove in 3 runs. 

Bayleigh Cope took the loss for the T-Birds.

Cloud County 5 Iowa Central 7 (10 innings)

The most exciting game of the weekend was an extra inning thriller against Iowa Central. Cloud missed several opportunities to win and fell to Iowa Central 7-5. 

Cloud pushed extra innings with a three run sixth and the game tying run in the seventh to tie it at four. In the sixth, Cloud got a big RBI double from Lexi Duhrkop and tied the game at three. Iowa Central then added a run in the 7th but the T-Birds answered as Bayleigh Cope hit a two out RBI double scoring Ann Flach from first base to push extra innings. 

Both teams went scoreless in the 8th and both teams plated a run in the 9th with tiebreaker rules in effect. Iowa Central then added two in the top of the 10th to take a 7-5 lead. Cloud threatened in the bottom of the inning with the bases loaded and Samantha Shafer at the plate. Shafer ripped a ball down the line but Iowa Central's third baseman dove and snagged it, ending the threat and sealing the 7-5 win.

Duhrkop settled in after allowing two first inning runs. She went 6 innings and allowed 3 earned runs while scattering 8 hits. Cloud took advantage of ten walks issued by Iowa Central.

Cloud County 0 Barton County 10

The T-Birds were blanked in game four by the Cougars of Barton County. Barton is currently 24-2 overall and swept their four games in the Spring Classic. 

It was a 1-0 game through five before the Cougars exploded for nine runs in the final two frames to extend it.

The T-Birds had just four hits and struck out 13 times in the game.

Duhrkop took the loss for the Thunderbirds.

Cloud will turn right back around and play Hutch on Tuesday as they open conference play in Concordia at 2/4pm.