CONCORDIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College baseball team is simmering.

Entering Thursday, the T-Birds had won back-to-back KJCCC series and seven of their last eight. Make that nine of their last 10 after a dominant doubleheader sweep of Colby Community College on Thursday to begin a four-game series by the final scores of 3-2 and 12-2.

"We're playing really well right now," said Cloud County head coach Eric Gilliland. "Colby came in leaders of the league and beat us four times last year. But we're pretty energized right now and we beat a good team twice (Thursday). We'll try to get after them again on Saturday."

The Trojans (18-14 overall, 9-5 KJCCC) came to Concordia tied atop the KJCCC standings, but were unable to get anything going against the T-Birds (16-13 overall, 11-7 KJCCC), who were led by great starting pitching and a banner day at the plate for sophomore Ryan Krolikowski.

Krolikowski was a spotless 6-for-6 between the two games, four of which went for extra bases, with five runs driven in. His afternoon was highlighted by a grand slam in the fifth inning of Game Two that broke open what was a 4-2 lead for the T-Birds at the time.

"He was amazing. He's as consistent of a person and player as you can find," Gilliland said of Krolikowski. "This game will reward those types of people who do the routine things and play the right way."

Krolikowski's blast to left-center highlighted a 13-hit performance by the Cloud County offense in Game Two.

Sophomores Ryan Simons and Tucker Catlett each tallied two hits apiece, and freshmen Kade Wallace and Ed Scott had productive days as Wallace was 2-for-3 with an RBI as a pinch-hitter and Scott was 2-for-3 with three runs scored and 2 RBI.

Scott deposited his first career home run in the bottom of the second inning to get Cloud County on the scoreboard.

On the mound, freshman left-hander Jackson Dietel (4-3) turned in his best start of March, going all seven innings, allowing just two runs on a home run in the first inning, while striking out five.

"The home run was my fault. It was a bad pitch call and an accidental pitch call that was hit out," Gilliland said. "Other than that, he got rolling with three pitches for a strike. We hadn't seen that guy in a month and a half, so it was very good to have him back right."

As for Game One, Cloud County fed off another great start by sophomore Erik Sabrowski to pick up a 3-2 victory.

Sabrowski pitched all seven innings, limiting Colby to a pair of runs on three hits and struck out 12 to tie him with Emilio Foden for the most strikeouts in a single season (78) in program history.

The T-Birds were able to stake Sabrowski to a 3-0 lead after a dropped pop up by Colby's starting pitcher Bryce Fraser open the door for a pair of runs with two outs in the fourth inning.

Krolikowski scored from third on the error, then Catlett scored one batter later on a RBI single by redshirt freshman Aidan Huggins.

"Early on in the season, it felt like we couldn't catch a lot of breaks. But during this stretch, we've been able to get some of those breaks like the pitcher missing a pop up on the infield," Gilliland said. "If he doesn't do that, the game certainly plays out a little differently. We were able to capitalize on mistakes and to our credit, we haven't made those mistakes."

Cloud County added its third run in the sixth inning on an RBI single by sophomore Tauren Langley.

The T-Birds will not hunt their third consecutive series victory on Saturday when they resume the series in Colby. Game times are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.