CONCORDIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College softball team returned home Tuesday and swept a much-needed doubleheader against Kansas City Kansas Community College, picking up a pair of crucial KJCCC East wins before going back out on the road for its next eight games.

"We needed this (two wins) big time," said Cloud County head coach, Aaron Acree. "If we can keep the momentum going a little bit, we're going to be OK."

The T-Birds (15-13 overall, 8-6 KJCCC East) took Game One, 3-1, behind a strong start by sophomore pitcher Bayleigh Cope. The right-hander also factored into the Game Two decision as she picked up the save in Cloud's 9-6 victory over the visiting Blue Devils (10-12 overall, 1-7 KJCCC East).

Cope went all seven innings in Game One, striking out three and limiting KCKCC to five hits.

Cloud County got on the scoreboard in the second inning on an RBI single by sophomore second baseman Jaycee Worrell.

The Blue Devils pulled even on a solo home run in the fourth inning, but Cloud answered with a pair of runs in the fifth, thanks in large part to some heads-up base running.

With two outs and runners on first and third, the Blue Devils had a passed ball, allowing Nicole Dinkel to score the go-ahead run from third. As freshman Jordan Ummel rounded the bag at second base, she alertly headed for third with no defender in the area. She came home one batter later on a RBI single by Cope.

"We got timely offense when we needed it and Bayleigh pitched very well that first game," Acree said.

In Game Two, the T-Birds' offense teed off in the first inning as they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on seven hits.

Worrell tripled home Cloud's first run. Fellow sophomore Samantha Shafer followed with an RBI single. Two more T-Birds' runs would score on an error, while sophomore Leslie Schuetz and freshman Marissa Wright polished off the inning with RBI singles.

Cloud's bats laid dormant during the middle innings, though, opening the door for the Blue Devils to chip away. KCKCC scored a run in the fourth and fifth innings, then crawled back within a run at 7-6 with a three-run sixth inning.

"We talked about that. We can not do that," said Acree, referring to the offense's dry spell. "We have to continue to score in those types of games. We got too relaxed."

The T-Birds got back on track the next half-inning as they pushed across two insurance runs in the home-half of the sixth on a one-out double by sophomore Erin King, who upped her team-leading batting average to .436 after going 3-for-4 in Game Two and 4-for-6 in the series.

"That was a huge hit by Erin and it was great to see her come through," Acree said. "She's been doing her job, playing team ball, and she came through with a big hit when we needed it."

Cope struck out two of the four batters she faced in the seventh inning to pick up her first save of the season and nail down the 9-6 final.

Cloud County will try to build off Tuesday's momentum when it heads back out on the road Friday for a pair of non-conference games against Doane College. Start times are set for 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.