ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – Starting Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play on the road, the Cloud County Community College softball team would fall by scores of 9-6 and 14-13 in eight innings to Cowley Community College at the Ed Hargrove Softball Field in Arkansas City, Kansas on Thursday, March 12th.

With all KJCCC athletic events canceled through at least April 1st, Cloud County falls to 5-6 overall and 0-2 in the Jayhawk Conference while the Tigers improved to 11-11 and 2-0 in the KJCCC.

GAME ONE:

The T-Birds would fall behind by a score of 4-0 after one inning of play before putting up three runs in the top of the second to cut the Cowley lead to one after two innings of action. Another two runs for the Tigers in the bottom of the third would give Cowley some breathing room as Cloud County would be forced to try and cut into the lead by pushing across a single run in the top of the fifth. Cowley would score two in the bottom of the fifth and one in the bottom of the sixth before seeing a late T-Bird rally net two runs for Cloud County before coming up short in the conference opener.

Leading Cloud County offensively would be a three-for-four performance from Sarah McCown as the freshman would drive in one and score twice while Mattison Hogrefe would go three-for-four and drive in a run. McCown would also hit one of two home runs for Cloud County in the game, with Emily Wells connecting on the other, but the T-Birds would be hurt by 11 runners being stranded compared to just four by Cowley. Hogrefe (5.0 innings) and Brynn Riley (1.0 innings) would combine to strike out four while allowing just four extra-base hits in the game, with Hogrefe taking the defeat.  

GAME TWO:

There would be no shortage of runs in game two as Cowley would jump out to a 4-1 lead after one inning of play before seeing Cloud County get a second run in the top of the second. A five-run third by Cowley would allow the Tigers to go up by a score of 9-2 and threaten to end things early, but the T-Birds would get a run in the fourth before erupting for six runs in the top of the sixth to tie things up at 9-9. Cloud County would then take the lead with three runs in the top of the seventh before allowing the Tigers to knot things up at 12 all and send things to extra-innings where the T-Birds would score one run in their offensive opportunity before seeing the Tigers end things with two in the bottom of the eighth.

Hogrefe would continue her hot hitting in game two, going two-for-five with a team-best four RBI while Kayla Lee would score twice and drive in three runs despite going just one-for-three in five plate appearances. Taylor Burks would also have herself a strong day at the plate, going three-for-four with four runs scored on three singles. Riley would start game two in the circle after finishing out game one and would throw 2.1 innings while Delaney Miller would throw 5.1 innings

What's Next?

Cloud County and the rest of the KJCCC will now take the rest of the month to determine the next steps of action regarding the remainder of the 2020 spring season for all athletic teams as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to work its way through the United States. All updates regarding the next steps taken by both Cloud County Community College and the KJCCC will be provided as the situation develops.