CONCORDIA, Kan. Overcoming a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the fourth with a three-run inning to earn a series win in game one, the Cloud County Community College baseball team would drop a 7-4 decision to Garden City Community College to earn a doubleheader split to close out a four-game series at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Saturday, April 3rd.

With a win in game one, Cloud County would push their winning streak to a season-long seven wins while picking up a second straight Kansas Jayhawk Community College conference series win to improve to 18-12 and 10-6 in the KJCCC West while Garden City salvages the final game of the series to move to 14-12 overall and 5-7 in Jayhawk Conference play.

Game One:
A rocky start from the T-Birds would see Garden City work a one-out single and two-out double in the top of the first inning as GCCC would score a run on a three hits before stranding runners on the corners to take their first lead of the series. CCCC would appear to be in prime position to get back the run with a one-out Jaden Parsons single, a two-out hit batter, and a walk to load the bases but a flyout would end the threat and leave the bases full of T-Birds.

Quick second and third innings would see both the Broncbusters and Cloud County face the minimum in both innings to keep it a 1-0 Garden City lead heading to the fourth. The T-Birds would manage to work around a leadoff single from GCCC in the top of the inning before finally manage to break through in the bottom of the fourth as a Garrett Redden leadoff double set things up for Williams Camacho-Soto who would turn on a pitch and just keep the ball fair down the left-field line with a towering two-run home run to give CCCC their first lead of the game. Ian Riley would then work a walk to go along with a Brock Hillebert single to put runners on the corners with still no outs in the inning. Garden City would manage to turn a double-play on the next at-bat as Cloud County would wind up getting an Adler Pierson single to score Riley and put the T-Birds up 3-1 to finish off the inning.

The run support would be more than enough as the Broncbusters would have offensive woes the rest of the way while seeing CCCC add an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth on a Camacho-Soto RBI single to score Noah Olson. A scoreless final two innings would then ensue as the T-Birds would add one more hit with a Pierson bunt single in the sixth while holding GCCC in check to secure a series win despite their lowest scoring output of the year in a game that CCCC would win.

A complete game performance from Carl Aikman would be the second of the season for the Topeka, Kansas native after allowing just one run on four hits while striking out nine on 96 total pitches. Three of the four hits allowed by Aikman would come in the first inning as the final 12 batters of the game would be retired in order.

Offensively, Cloud County would work eight hits off a trio of Broncbuster pitchers with Camacho-Soto going two-for-two with three RBI while Pierson would add two hits in three at-bats. Redden would add the only other extra-base hit for CCCC with a double for his only hit in two at-bats.

Game Two:
Another early run in the top of the first of the series finisher would allow Garden City to go up 1-0 after an inning of play as the Broncbusters would double their lead at 2-0 with a single run in the third. CCCC would strand a runner in each of the first two innings before going down in order in the third, GCCC would threaten to add to their lead with a one-out walk and single in the top of the fourth, but an inning-ending double-play would get Cloud County starter Christian Womble out of the jam as the score would remain 2-0 heading to the bottom of the fourth.

A missed opportunity in the bottom of the fourth would be had by CCCC as the T-Birds would get back-to-back one-out singles to put runners on first and second with one out before a strikeout and fly-out would end the inning with Cloud County stranding two more runners. The 2-0 GCCC lead would hold until the bottom of the seventh as the T-Birds would make a move to their bench with pinch hitter Willie Ponce and Jacob Shaw both hitting back-to-back doubles with Ponce scoring on the hit by Shaw as Cloud County would finally knock Garden City starter D.J. Burke out of the game. A failed sacrifice bunt and strikeout would look to put a damper on the inning as Cloud County would still be down a run when Riley would find a way to deliver with a single into left field that would score Shaw before seeing Riley thrown out on a relay throw into second to tie things at 2-2.

Garden City would have a response as the Broncbusters would use four hits and a hit batter to break through for four runs with an RBI single and RBI double coming on consecutive at-bats to put GCCC up 4-2 before two more runs would come home on a two-out single. A chance for Cloud County to try and get at least a run back in the bottom of the eighth would be thwarted by GCCC as the first two batters of the inning would reach before a strikeout and walk would load the bases with just one out. The inning would wind up empty however for CCCC as a pair of strikeouts would get Garden City out of the jam as all momentum would be lost for Cloud County.

In the final inning of the day, Garden City would manage to add two more runs on three hits as the lead would balloon to 7-2 as Cloud County would only manage to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth with a wild pitch and sacrifice fly bringing home a walk and double from earlier in the inning as the final three batters of the game would be retired in order.

Taking the loss for CCCC would be reliever Connor Woods who would go 3.1 innings in relief of Womble and strikeout five while allowing three runs on three hits. Womble would strike out four and allow two runs on six hits in his four innings of work while Rans Sanders (0.2 innings) and Brady Kobitowich (1.0 inning) also saw action for Cloud County.

Redden would lead CCCC with a team-best three hits to finish three-for-four at the plate in the game while Parsons would put together a three-for-five effort. RBIs from Olson and Riley would be the only two runs batted in for Cloud County as the other two runs would come via wild pitch and error on GCCC.

What's Next?
Cloud County will have the KJCCC West Division bye-week next week as the T-Birds will only have a Thursday home doubleheader with Kansas City Kansas Community College on the schedule for next week. The mid-week doubleheader between the T-Birds and Blue Devils is set for a 1 p.m. start as KCKCC was swept in a home doubleheader on Saturday by number-five ranked Johnson County by scores of 7-4 and 15-4 to fall to 10-8 overall and 5-5 in KJCCC East play.