ARKANSAS CITY, Kansas — After a strong start to the 2018 campaign, the Cloud County Community College baseball team experienced its first setback of the long season on Monday when it traveled to take on No. 4 ranked Cowley College.

What head coach Eric Gilliland said he hoped would have been an opportunity for his team turned into a tough day on the diamond as the T-Birds fell 16-1 to the nationally ranked Tigers in a late-scheduled game out of necessity for both teams due to the recent weather postponements.

"We walked into a buzz saw and had a terrible mentality going into (Monday) and got beat in every facet," Gilliland said. "Every time you play it's an opportunity and we certainly wasted that one today. The good thing is we get to turn around and play Tuesday to try and get that taste out of our mouths."

Cloud County (5-4 overall) made things difficult on itself with 11 walks and four errors on defense, allowing the Tigers (5-5 overall) to jump out in front early with a 6-1 lead through three innings before putting the game out of reach with a seven-run fifth inning.

"All around, we were on our heels from the get-go and never punched back," Gilliland said.

Sophomore catcher Dario DeSantis drilled his second home run of the season in the top of the third inning, and sophomore Tucker Catlett was 2-for-3 at the plate to in the loss.

Freshman right-hander Jordan Alexander was a bright spot out of the bullpen as he threw a spotless inning of relief with a pair of strikeouts in his collegiate debut.

Cloud County will look to shake off Monday's loss and chalk it up as a teaching moment as it prepares to take on Highland Community College at 2 p.m. on Tuesday in what will be the T-Birds' final tune-up before KJCCC action begins on Thursday against Garden City.

 "We needed to be humbled," Gilliland said. "And if that didn't happen (Monday), I'll be disappointed. Hopefully it's a lesson learned and we go into Tuesday and Thursday with a more competitive mindset."