CONCORDIA, Kansas —  The Cloud County Community College softball team wrapped up its eight-game home stand on Tuesday with a split against Independence Community College, falling 9-8 in Game One before rebounding for a 3-1 victory in Game Two.

"Way too many errors in that first game and that's what cost us. We really wanted these two games bad, but at least we responded in the second game," said Cloud County head coach, Aaron Acree. "There were quite a few fly balls that wreaked havoc (Tuesday), but I think we did a much better job adjusting to the conditions in the second game."

Swirling winds made conditions tough for players on Tuesday and contributed to three costly errors by the T-Birds (12-10 overall, 5-3 KJCCC East) in Game One, which led to eight unearned runs for the visiting Pirates (6-16 overall, 3-5 KJCCC East).

Independence took a 4-1 lead in the top of the second inning, with all four runs coming across after a dropped third out. Cloud County answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single by freshman Nicole Dinkel and a two-run single from sophomore Jaycee Worrell.

The two teams traded runs in the third inning before Independence took a 6-5 lead in the top of the fourth inning. It added three insurance runs in the top of the sixth, but the T-Birds again rallied with three runs of their own in the home-half of the frame — this time on an RBI single from Jordan Ummel and two-run double by Samantha Shafer — to crawl back within one at 9-8.

Unfortunately, the T-Birds were unable to complete the comeback as they couldn't bring home a one-out walk, and potential tying run, drawn by Marissa Wright in the seventh.

Cloud County would bounce back in Game Two behind another strong start by Ummel, who has now won her last three starts to improve her record to 6-3 on the season.

Ummel went all seven innings and allowed one unearned run on three hits. She didn't have her great stuff, walking two and failing to strike out a batter for the first time in an outing this season, but she was able to keep the Pirates off-balance much of the afternoon.

"She battled her command, but it looked like she got stronger as the day went on," said Acree, referring to Ummel. "She pitched well for us again today. We had the one error behind her in the second inning, but then everyone settled down and played ball."

The T-Birds manufactured all the runs they'd need in the bottom of the first inning as sophomore Erin King, Cloud's leading hitter with a .459 batting average, singled home freshman Marissa Wright.

Fellow sophomore Samantha Shafer, who was 2-for-3 in Game Two, reached on an error one batter later that scored Cloud's second run. Then freshman outfielder Autumn Adams capped off the T-Birds' scoring with a RBI groundout to shortstop that brought home King.

Cloud County will look to build off its solid 5-3 home stand when it begins a four-game road swing this weekend with a doubleheader against No. 10 ranked Johnson County Community College on Friday and a twin bill against Fort Scott Community College on Saturday.

"It's going to be tough playing at Johnson County. It always is," Acree said. "It'd be huge if we can get two wins this weekend. But I'd be a lot happier with three."