CONCORDIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College baseball team suffered some growing pains over the weekend when it kicked off KJCCC West play against Dodge City Community College as the T-Birds went 0-4.

Extreme winds out to left field made Lee Doyen Field a launching pad Saturday and Sunday as a total of 15 home runs were hit during the weekend, 13 by a power-heavy Conquistadors (10-4 overall, 4-0 KJCCC) team.

"Dodge City is really good and we got introduced to the Jayhawk West conference this weekend in a hurry," said Cloud County head coach, Eric Gilliland. "It's disappointing because I thought we'd play better at home to open league play."

The T-Birds (8-10 overall, 0-4 KJCCC) dropped the first two games of the series on Saturday 16-3 and 17-4, respectively.

On Sunday, Cloud County battle from start to finish with Dodge City, losing a tight 5-1 ballgame to begin the day.

Sophomore starting pitcher John Stiger was solid on the bump, tossing six innings, allowing four runs, three earned while striking out six.

The series finale, a 14-11 win for Dodge City, was a slugfest as the two teams combined for 25 runs on 33 hits.

"We saw signs of life in Day Two. The offense finally came alive and I thought we competed throughout the second day," Gilliland said. "How we competed (Sunday) must be par for the course as far as our mentality, attitude and effort go. Now we just need to make better plays and get hits when it counts. Our margin for error isn't real big. We have to control the things we can control like playing hard and cleaning up the game because you can't give a team like Dodge extra outs."

Cloud County produced a season-high 16 hits, led by three apiece from freshmen Matt Bondarchuk, Ryan Krolikowski and Tauren Langley. The trio each had two RBI on the afternoon as well.

Bondarchuk doubled twice, while Langley drilled his third home run of the spring in the bottom of the third inning, which gave the T-Birds a 4-3 lead.

Cloud County led 6-4 entering the fifth before the Conquistadors struck for five runs, forcing the T-Birds to play catch up the rest of the way.

They'll look to rebound this Thursday when they host Kansas Wesleyan JV at 4 p.m. before jumping back into KJCCC West action Saturday, beginning a four-game road series against Garden City Community College.