SALINA, Kan. – Opening day of the 2022 season featured no lack of offense from the Cloud County Community College baseball team as the T-Birds would defeat the Kansas Wesleyan JV team by scores of 8-2 and 23-2 to sweep a doubleheader at Dean Evans Field in Salina, Kansas on Thursday, February 10th.
Serving as the season opener for both teams, Cloud County is now 2-0 on the season and starts with a 2-0 record for the second time in the past three years while the Coyotes fall to 0-2 overall.
GAME ONE:
Scoring early and often, CCCC would send eight batters to the plate in the top of the first inning with sophomore
Ian Riley blasting a leadoff home run before seeing
Tom Poole hit a one-out single and come around to score later in the inning on a wild pitch. Starting pitcher
Haden Dow would work around a pair of two-out walks to strand a pair of KWU JV runners as Riley would waste no time in his second at-bat by hitting his second home run of the game. Cloud County would go on to add another run in the top of the second as Poole would work a two-out walk and score on a
Joel Benes single as the T-Birds would take a 4-0 lead after two innings of play.
Another run would be scored by CCCC in the third as
Garrett Redden and
Ty Wevers would both double with the double by Wevers bringing Redden around to score as Cloud County would be up 5-0. Benes would hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Riley in the fourth to give the T-Birds a 6-0 lead prior to the CCCC pitching staff allowing a hit to the Coyotes. After a scoreless fifth for both squads, the T-Birds would push across two more runs on a Redden two-RBI double that would score both Benes and Poole.
The shutout bid from the Cloud County pitching staff would end in the bottom of the sixth as KWU JV would use a leadoff single and stolen base to put a runner in scoring position for an RBI-single up the middle. CCCC would be unable to add to their lead in the top of the seventh, but would only concede one additional run in the bottom half of the inning as another two-out RBI single would put the final score at 8-2.
Cloud County's eight runs would come on nine hits as Riley would finish a perfect three-for-three with two RBIs and two walks to reach base in all five at-bats while Redden would go two-for-four with a pair of runs batted in. Four other players for the T-Birds would collect at least one hit while drawing a total of eight walks and four hit batters.
A total of five pitchers would be used in the contest, with Dow picking up the win after throwing a scoreless first inning as
Brady Stuewe (one inning),
Cole Askew (two innings),
Mason Munz (two innings), and
Jacob Shaw (one inning) would combine to throw the final six innings. As a staff, the T-Birds would allow just two runs while striking out nine of the 28 batters faced.
Game Two:
Putting together an even more dominant opening half-inning in game two, Cloud County would have the first 10 batters of the game reach base and come around to score to open up a 10-0 lead on seven hits with sophomore
Brock Wollin and Poole hitting back-to-back home runs. After batting around to bring Riley back up to the plate, the Austin, Texas native would hit his third home run of the afternoon that would cap off the 10-run inning as CCCC would be able to seemingly cruise to a run-rule shortened victory.
Things would slow down just slightly in the second as an RBI infield single from
Karson Green and Coyote wild pitch would bring across two more runs before seeing a seven-run top of the third completely put the game out of reach. In the third,
Tristan Tenorio would drive home Benes with a double down the right-field line followed by an
Alexander Diaz infield single, Riley RBI single, Wollin RBI double,
Noah Unzicker RBI double, and Benes RBI double as the seven runs would come on seven hits and two KWU JV errors.
Kansas Wesleyan would get two runs back in the top of the third as a one-out walk and back-to-back RBI hits would briefly bring the score to 19-2 before seeing two more Cloud County hits, two hit batters, and a walk allow for four more T-Bird runs. The final inning and a half of the contest would go scoreless as the game would end following the fifth inning due to run-rule.
Surpassing his performance in game one, Riley would once again lead CCCC by going three-for-three with a home run and four RBIs while drawing two more walks to finish the afternoon with a six-for-six day at the plate with four walks and six runs batted in. Wollin and Green would account for four hits, four runs, and seven RBIs as Diaz would also have a multi-hit performance by going three-for-five with two RBIs and three runs scored.
No Cloud County pitcher would be used for more than one inning in the game, with
Conner Woods picking up the win as the starter after allowing one walk and striking out two of the four batters he faced.
Rans Sanders (two),
John Green (one) Benes (three), and
Chase Parker (two) would combine to tally for the remaining eight strikeouts as 10 of the 23 KWU JV batters in the game would go down on strikes. As a staff, Cloud County would allow just three hits and two runs (both earned).
What's Next?
Cloud County will head to Fort Scott to take on the Greyhounds in what has become a Monday doubleheader after seeing the previously scheduled four-game series postponed due to field conditions. Originally set to serve as the season-opener for both teams, FSCC will be playing their first contests of the year by hosting the T-Birds at 1 p.m. on February 14th.
