OVERLAND Park – Kan. – A battle of JBB.net NJCAA Division I top-25 ranked teams would see the number-25 ranked Cloud County Community College baseball team earn a 9-3, seven-inning win over number-17 ranked Johnson County Community College before falling by a score of 7-6 on a walk-off home run to split a non-conference doubleheader at the JCCC Baseball Field in Overland Park, Kansas on Friday, March 4th.
The defeat in game two would end a nine-game winning streak that would be accomplished following a win in the opener as Cloud County is now 15-2 overall after finishing the week 5-1. Johnson County moves to 10-5 overall following Friday's action.
"It was a tough ending to an otherwise solid day of baseball" said head coach
Eric Gilliland in a post-game interview. "Aside from the first inning of both games, we played really good baseball." "Offensively we had consistently good at-bats throughout the day and our pitchers really battled on a tough day against a good Johnson County club." "Never happy to finish the day with a split but we saw some good things all over the field today."
GAME ONE:
For the first time all year, the T-Birds would not be the first team to score in the game as JCCC would erase an
Ian Riley leadoff single with a double play and work around a
Tom Poole walk to end the top of the first on a strikeout. The Cavaliers would have three of their first four batters record base hits with an RBI double and sacrifice fly driving in a pair of runs before a two-out RBI double would cap off a three-run inning for Johnson County.
Cloud County would get two of the three runs back in the top of the second as
Williams Camacho-Soto,
Willie Ponce, and
Joel Benes would all record base-hit singles to open the inning with Benes driving home Camacho-Soto and moving into scoring position to put runners on second and third with no outs. After a strikeout,
Adler Pierson would hit a sacrifice fly to drive in CCCC's second run of the game as the two-run inning would come on three hits.
Striking out the side in the bottom of the second would be T-Bird starter
Christian Womble with two of the three strikeouts coming on swings and misses as momentum would start to swing in favor of Cloud County. A big top of the third would see a Poole solo home run be followed up by a two-out Camacho-Soto single and Ponce hit-by-pitch to put two runners on for a Benes three-run blast to give CCCC a 6-3 lead. Johnson County would be unable to turn a two-out walk into any offensive in their half of the third as both teams would go down quietly in the fourth to leave things at a 6-3 Cloud County lead heading into the final three innings of play.
Another crooked number would be put up by the T-Birds in the top of the fifth as
Brock Wollin would reach first following a wild pitch on a strikeout and then advance to third on a throwing error by the Cavalier catcher. Camacho-Soto would ensure that the error would play a role in the inning as a two-run homer would give CCCC an 8-2 lead as Cloud County would tack on one more run with a
Ty Wevers sacrifice fly to score Ponce.
Cruising through the bottom of the fifth with two ground outs and a strikeout, Womble would turn things over to reliever
Conner Woods to finish off the final two innings of action as a six-run lead would put the T-Birds in position to earn a doubleheader opening win. Two strikeouts from the Winfield, Kansas native would keep the pitching dominance going for CCCC to finish off the victory as JCCC would finish with just one hit following three hits in the bottom of the first.
Settling in on the mound following the first inning, Womble would finish with seven strikeouts in five innings and allow just one walk and four hits to earn his second win of the year. Woods allowed just one base runner on a two-out single in the sixth and would strike out four of the seven batters he faced which included back-to-back strikeouts to end the game. Offensively, Cloud County would get three hits and two RBIs from Camacho-Soto while Benes would drive in four runs on a two-for-four performance at the plate. In addition to nine hits, CCCC would draw five walks and have three batters hit-by-pitches.
GAME TWO:
Runs aplenty would be scored in the first inning of game two as the T-Birds would strike for a pair of runs with a Camacho-Soto sacrifice fly that would be dropped by the JCCC right fielder which allowed
Kolden Howerton to hit a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat. Johnson County would answer right back with five runs as a leadoff home run would start a five-run inning that would include an unearned run following a CCCC throwing error as Cloud County would once again be in a three-run hole heading to the second.
Wevers would get the scoring started in the top of the second with a leadoff home run before taking advantage of another Cavalier error that would allow Riley to reach base. Poole would drive home the Austin, Texas native with a sacrifice fly to bring the T-Birds within one as CCCC would strand a runner at second to end the inning. Things would quiet down for the next inning and a half as neither team would be able to record a hit in the third which would send things to the fourth with Cloud County still trailing by a single run.
A two-out rally from the T-Birds in the fourth would see
Garrett Redden hit a single before stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing error before eventually scoring on the next at-bat with a Poole RBI single. CCCC would threaten to take the lead as Benes would draw a walk to extend the inning, but a pitching change would allow JCCC to avoid any more damage. The Cloud County pitching staff would once again settle in following a shaky first-inning as starter
Jack Mount would get through the fourth with a one-two-three inning that would allow the freshman to exit the game with the lead in the bottom of the fifth after a leadoff single and two-out hit batter would allow for back-to-back walks to drive in the go-ahead run.
Johnson County would once again go down in order as reliever
Haden Dow would pick up where Mount left off with 16 consecutive Cavalier batters being retired in order from the bottom of the fourth until the bottom of the ninth. Despite getting the stellar pitching performance, Cloud County would be unable to add to their lead in the sixth, seventh, or eighth innings as the JCCC pitching staff would nearly match the CCCC pitching performance to keep things at a one-run deficit heading to the bottom of the ninth.
In the final half-inning of the game, the Cavaliers would get a hit batter following a fly out to start the inning which would put the game-tying run on base. One more pitch is all that would occur as Jeremy Rader would hit a walk-off two-run home run that would hand CCCC a heartbreaking one-run defeat for their first loss in nearly two weeks and only the second of the year.
Taking a no-decision would be Mount following a four-inning outing that would include three strikeouts and five runs allowed (four earned) on five hits. Dow would allow just one hit and two baserunners total but see the two baserunners allowed prove to be the difference as the redshirt freshman would fall to 2-1 overall after taking the loss. Cloud county would outhit Johnson County 7-6 in the game but leave 10 runners on base as clutch hitting would be sorely needed. Redden would finish the day with a three-for-four performance in game two while Poole would finish as the only other CCCC player to finish with multiple hits in the game.
What's Next?
Cloud County opens Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division action on Thursday, March 10th with a home 1 PM doubleheader against preseason KJCCC West Division favorite Colby Community College. Colby has lost their last three games after starting the year 6-0 with the last three losses coming to nationally ranked Crowder Community College. The Trojans are scheduled to play at Lamar Community College on Tuesday afternoon before making the trip to Concordia to open the four-game series.
