CONCORDIA, Kan. – The Cloud County Community College baseball team will begin postseason play on Friday, May 14th at 3 p.m. as the Thunderbirds take on Kansas City Kansas Community College in game two of the Seward County Sub-Regional hosted at Brent Gould Field in Liberal, Kansas.
 
In addition to CCCC and KCKCC, Neosho County and host Seward County will round out this weekend's four-team NJCAA Region VI Sub-Regional double-elimination bracket that will be played over the course of three days and conclude on Sunday, May 16th.
 
Three games are scheduled for Friday beginning at 12 p.m. as Seward County will host Neosho County before making way for the Cloud County Kansas City Kansas game to directly follow. The losing teams of each of the two opening round games will then square off in an elimination game that is slated to begin at 6 p.m. which is dependent of the first two games of the day. Saturday's action will begin at 1 p.m. as the two winning teams from Friday's opening games will play a winner's bracket game with the loser falling to a 4 p.m. elimination game later that day. Sunday will then feature the 2-0 team against the team that has battled back from the elimination bracket for a 12 p.m. start with an "if necessary" game to directly follow if both teams have one loss after the 12 p.m. game.
 
Whichever team is able to come away from this weekend's Seward County Sub-Regional will advance to next week's NJCAA Plains District Tournament which is set for May 20-22 at Dean Evans Stadium in Salina, Kansas. The four-team Plains District Tournament will feature another double-elimination format as the four winners of this weekend's NJCAA Region VI Sub-Regionals will compete for a spot in the 2021 JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
 
Cloud County has played a total of six games against the remaining three teams in this weekend's Seward County Sub-Regional, boasting a 4-2 record with two wins apiece over Kansas City Kansas and Seward County. The T-Birds last squared off against Neosho County in 2019 as CCCC would drop a pair of games to the Panthers down in Chanute as part of their opening month of the season.
 
All games for this weekend's Seward County Sub-Regional will be live streamed courtesy of Seward County with live stats available for all games involving Cloud County. All games featuring Seward County will be accompanied by a play-by-play broadcast on the video with plans still in the works to have a play-by-play broadcast accompany non-Seward County games. If the live video streams of the Cloud County games do not include a play-by-play broadcast on the video, the Cloud County athletic department will provide a separate audio only broadcast for fans to listen to on the T-Bird Sports Network.

Daily ticket prices for the sub-regional will be $5 per day and sold both online and at the gate. Fans will also have the option of purchasing a $13 "all-tournament" pass that will give admission for all three days of the tournament and all six/seven games that take place. Fans can find links to tickets, live video, live statistics, and live audio at the links below as well as a brief overview of each of the four teams in this weekend's Seward County Sub-Regional.
    Cloud County:
Cloud County enters the Seward County Sub-Regional as the number-six seed in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division after dropping their final five games of the regular-season. Sporting an overall record of 28-22, Cloud County looked to be in contention to host this weekend's sub-regional round after winning five straight and seven of their past nine games before their recent struggles over the course of the final week of the season. The T-Birds will look to rely on pitching to overcome their recent offensive woes as three-time KJCCC Pitcher of the Week Kolby Dougan will lead the CCCC pitching staff that has two players in the top five of the KJCCC in strikeouts (Dougan – 92, Evan Wilde - 74).
 
Kansas City Kansas:
KCKCC will look to avenge a pair of losses to Cloud County in their sub-regional opener as the Blue Devils have a 29-18 overall record coming into the weekend but are just 3-3 against the remaining sub-regional opponents. Of KCKCC's 29 wins this season, only 19 are against NJCAA Division I opponents with Kansas City Kansas going just 5-7 against the remaining teams in the top half of the final KJCCC East standings (Cowley, Johnson County, and Allen). Speed is the name of the game however for KCKCC, with the Blue Devils tallying 100 stolen bases (the other three teams in the sub-regional have 110 stolen bases combined).
 
Seward County:
At one point the hottest team in the league, Seward County has cooled off from their mid-season stretch that saw the Saints win 11 straight games which included 10 straight KJCCC games. Going 5-3 down the final week-plus stretch of the season, Seward County was one of three teams in the KJCCC West Division to finish at 20-12 and in a tie for second but won the three-team tiebreaker to earn hosting rights for this weekend. SCCC's 48-game regular season schedule featured strictly NJCAA opponents, included 44 games against NJCAA Division I foes as the Saints would finish 25-23 overall while ranking 28th out of 174 NJCAA Division I teams with a .335 team batting average.
 
Neosho County:
Neosho has battled their way through the regular-season to finish as one of five KJCCC schools to play a full 50-game regular-season schedule, posting a 25-25 overall record coming into this weekend's sub-regional round. An offense-minded team, NCCC has hit 78 home runs (13th nationally) and has a team batting average of .346 (18th nationally) while scoring 9.4 runs per contest. Pitching has been a struggle however for the Panthers as a team ERA of 7.38 ranks 127th nationally with teams hitting .322 against Neosho. Pitching depth and stamina could also be an issue for NCCC this weekend as Neosho has seen only 12 of their 50 games go a full nine-innings.