HIGHLAND, Kan. - Just two days removed from finishing off a four-game home sweep that saw the Cloud County Community College baseball team score 51 runs, the T-Birds would continue their offensive onslaught on Tuesday afternoon by scoring another 35 runs in 11 innings of action to take a non-conference doubleheader sweep of Highland Community College at the Highland Community Ballpark in Highland, Kansas.
Winning by scores of 17-6 in five innings and 18-4 in six innings, CCCC improves to 12-1 overall on the year and is averaging over 12 runs per contest through 13 games this year. In Cloud County's 12 wins, the T-Birds have scored a total of 163 runs as nine of the 12 wins have not gone the scheduled distance due to CCCC run-ruling their opponent. Highland falls to 3-11 overall with the losses and has lost 11 of their last 12 games after starting the season with a pair of wins at Clarendon College on February 6th.
GAME ONE:
The 17 runs put up by Cloud County would be scored in just three of the five innings played between the T-Birds and Scotties as CCCC would be held scoreless in both the top of the first and top of the third. Despite being held without a hit in the opening frame, Cloud County would continue their streak of being the first team to score in each of their 13 games this season as a three-run top of the second would come on RBI hits from
Williams Camacho-Soto and
Ian Riley along with a passed ball to score
Willie Ponce. Highland would respond with a one-out double and an RBI single after a wild pitch would move the Scottie runner just 90 feet away from scoring.
Cloud County would see their lead cut in half in the bottom of the third as a solo home run for HCC would bring the score within one at 3-2 with the game still very much waiting for a team to take control. The T-Birds would get both runs they gave up between the second and third innings back in the top of the fourth as a two-out solo home run from
Tom Poole and
Garrett Redden RBI single to score
Danny Infante would give CCCC some breathing room once again.
Highland would be unable to turn a leadoff walk into anything in their half of the fourth before seeing the flood gates open for the Cloud County offense as 17 batters would come to the plate for the T-Birds in the top of the fifth. Three hit batters would load the bases for Cloud County as a
Kolden Howerton pinch-hit two-RBI single would kick off what would become a 12-run inning thanks in part to a Camacho-Soto three-run blast,
Ty Wevers solo bomb,
Griffin Stuewe pinch-hit two-RBI double, Poole two-run homer, and
Jacob Aberg pinch-hit RBI single. In total, CCCC would record eight hits in the inning to take a commanding 17-2 lead as the T-Birds would now sit just three outs away from a fifth-straight five-inning win.
The Scotties wouldn't go down without making things interesting in the bottom of the fifth as a hit batter and walk to start the inning would set up an RBI double and RBI groundout to get two runs on the board for Highland. HCC would then get a two-run home run to get back within 11, but be unable to find an additional two runs that would be needed to extend the game as two of the three final batters would strike out to end the game.
10 different players contributed to a 15-hit effort for Cloud County as eight different players would drive in at least one run. Leading the way with a three-for-three effort and four RBIs would be Camacho-Soto as two of his three hits would go for extra bases in addition to drawing one walk. Even with the 17-run output, CCCC managed to strand 11 base runners in the game while drawing nine walks.
Tossing four innings to earn his second win of the year would be sophomore
Aaron Hayes as the Weatherford, Texas native struck out six and allowed four runs on 75 total pitches.
John Green finished off the remaining three outs in the game by allowing two runs on four hits and striking out two on 23 pitches.
GAME TWO:
Ensuring that the start of the game would not be as close as the first three innings of game one, CCCC would waste no time getting on the board in game two as a Riley leadoff bunt single set up Camacho-Soto's second home run of the game to give Cloud County a 2-0 lead. Five more runs would be pushed across on six hits in the top of the second as the first six batters of the inning would record a hit with
Brock Wollin delivering the big blow with a three-run home run that would put the T-Birds up 7-0 heading to the top of the third.
Taking advantage of a Wevers leadoff walk, Cloud County added to their lead in the top of the third with a single run before being held scoreless in the top of the fourth as things would sit at an 8-0 T-Bird lead heading into the bottom of the fourth. After being limited to just one hit through three innings of play, Highland would turn a leadoff double into a four-run inning that would come on three hits and one CCCC error that led to a pair of unearned runs. The T-Birds would get all four runs that they gave up back in the top of the fifth by using taking advantage of a hit batter and two walks to load the bases for Howerton who would clear the bags with a bases-clearing double. A Stuewe RBI single brought home Howerton in the next at-bat to cap off the four-run inning that would come on just two hits and put things back at an eight-run advantage.
A one-two-three inning in the bottom of the fifth that featured a groundout and two strikeouts would take any chance at building momentum out of play for Highland as CCCC would make their way back up to the plate where they added five runs on five hits including a Wollin two-RBI triple to make a run-rule victory a possibility with a clean bottom half of the inning. Highland would once again go down in order in the bottom of the sixth to end the game as CCCC would outscore the Scotties by 25 runs on the day.
Camacho-Soto followed up his four-RBI performance in game one with another four RBIs in game two on two hits while reaching base three times in four plate appearances. Wollin (five RBIs) and Howerton (four RBIs) would account for nine of the remaining 14 runs batted in by CCCC as six different players recorded multiple hits in the contest. On the mound, Concordia native and starter
Chase Parker would earn his second win after tossing 3.2 innings and allowing just two earned runs on four hits.
Conner Woods (1.1 innings) and
Rans Sanders (1.0 inning) would also see action on the bump for Cloud County and combine to strike out six while not allowing a single hit.
What's Next?
A change of locations and venues will see Cloud County back at home on Thursday to host the Kansas Wesleyan University JV team in a pair of seven-inning contests beginning at 2 PM. CCCC opened their season at KWU JV back on February 10th, winning 8-2 and 23-2 as part of their season-opening six-game winning streak.
