McPherson, Kan. – After dropping their first game of the season in their 2021 road opener by a score of 3-2, the Cloud County Community College softball team would respond in a big way by breaking out for 21 runs on 19 hits to earn a doubleheader split with the McPherson College JV team in McPherson, Kansas on Wednesday, March 3rd.

With the split, Cloud County moves to 3-1 overall on the season and is averaging nearly 10 runs per contest through the first four games of the year.

Game one would see a pitcher's duel break out between the T-Birds and Bulldogs as CCCC would see McPherson score two of their three of their runs via the long ball. Trailing 3-0 heading into the top of the sixth, Cloud County would turn an Emily Dunaway leadoff double and Taylor Burks single into a pair of runs before stranding the game-tying run to end the inning. One final chance in the contest for the T-Birds would be seen in the seventh as leadoff batter Kayla Lee would draw a walk to get aboard, but that would be all that CCCC could manage in the inning as the Bulldogs would hang on for the win.

Cloud County would outhit McPherson JV 8-6 in the contest, but be hurt by nine strikeouts as the T-Birds would be unable to come up with timely hits with runners aboard. The T-Birds would also have the only two errors of the game as both starting pitchers (Delaney Miller for Cloud County, Katy Wilson for McPherson JV) would go the distance in the circle.

In game two, things would get off to a rough start for Cloud County as McPherson JV would jump out to a 9-0 lead after two innings of play and lead by a score of 10-2 through four innings of action. The T-Birds would then flip a switch offensively as CCCC would erupt for 11 runs in the top of the fifth before going on to add three in the sixth and five in the seventh to outscore the Bulldogs 21-10 in the final three innings.

Pounding out 19 total hits in the game, Cloud County would see four players record three hits in the contest as Lee, Taylor Glause, Rae Ann Hartwig, and Kelsey Bohnsack combined to drive in eight of CCCC's 21 runs. Cloud County would also take advantage of eight free passes issued by McPherson JV and four Bulldog errors in the game as six of the 21 runs would be unearned.

Kyra Meyer would pick up the win for CCCC to improve to 2-0 after throwing four innings of action and striking out two while Miller would throw the final three innings to pick up her first save of the season after getting the start in game one.

What's Next?
Cloud County will be back at home on Saturday, March 6th as the T-Birds will welcome Southeast Community College to town for a 1 PM doubleheader at the CCCC Softball Field. Southeast CC will be opening their season on Saturday after going 1-6 in an abbreviated 2020 that was cut short due to COVID-19. Going back to the 2018 season, Cloud County and Southeast have split their last six contest against each other.