ARKANSAS CITY, Kan. – A battle of teams currently second in their respective divisions of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference would see the Cloud County Community College baseball team be unable to overcome four-run innings in the fourth and fifth from ninth-ranked Cowley Community College as part of an 11-4 non-conference road defeat at Tiger Field in Arkansas City, Kansas on Tuesday, April 19th.
With the loss, Cloud County is now 34-11 overall on the year while Cowley improves to 33-7 overall as both teams will resume KJCCC division play in their respective divisions later this week.
Going down in order in the top of the first, the T-Birds would see the Tigers strike for one run on two hits in the bottom of the first as a leadoff single and one-out double would put runners on the corners for an RBI groundout to put Cowley up 1-0 heading into the second. Putting their first base runner of the game on with a leadoff walk from
Kolden Howerton, CCCC would then get a
Williams Camacho-Soto one-out single to put two runners on for former Tiger and current T-Bird
Joel Benes who would launch a three-run home run over the center-field fence to give Cloud County a 3-1 lead.
Cowley would get another single run in the second with a sacrifice fly before tying the game up in the bottom of the third with a solo home run on the first pitch of the inning as things would be deadlocked at 3-3 heading into the top of the fourth. A one-out single from Benes did not turn into anything else for Cloud County in the inning allowing the Tigers to come back up to the plate where Cowley would manage to break out for their first big inning of the game. A leadoff home run for the second-straight inning would put Cowley up 4-3 before seeing two of the next three batters hit by a pitch to put two runners on for an RBI double to force Cloud County into a pitching change. After a wild pitch brought home another run, the Tigers would draw a walk and get an RBI single to cap off a four-run inning that would suddenly see CCCC trail by a score of 7-3.
Three strikeouts would erase a one-out
Danny Infante walk in the top of the fifth for the T-Birds as Cowley would continue their offensive push in the bottom of the inning with two more hit batters and a walk setting up another four-run inning that would come on just two hits as Cloud County would face their largest deficit of the day at 11-3. In the middle of the inning would be an hour-long rain delay due to a weather system that moved through the area as the T-Birds would look to try and regroup from the delay to try and get back into the game.
Another hitless inning for CCCC in the top of the sixth would keep things at an eight-run deficit as Cloud County would keep Cowley off the scoreboard by stranding a runner in the bottom of the sixth to send things to the seventh. In the seventh, an
Ian Riley two-out triple would spark a potential rally as Infante would drive home the Austin, Texas native in the next at-bat before seeing
Tom Poole get hit by a pitch and Howerton draw a walk to load the bases. After a pitching change from the Tigers, the T-Birds would elect to send a pinch-hitter to the plate where a groundout would end the inning with the bases loaded and just one run coming across for Cloud County.
Getting a quick one-two-three inning defensively, Cloud County would put another two runners on base in the top of the eighth before being held scoreless as neither team would produce any more offense leading to the second-largest defeat of the season for the T-Birds.
Out-hit in the contest 11-7, Cloud County would see three of their seven hits in the game go for extra bases with Riley's triple in the seventh helping the T-Birds tie a single-season team record for triples with the 24th triple of the year. As a team, CCCC would strike out 15 times and draw just four walks, and strand a total of nine runners.
What's Next?
Action is scheduled to resume for Cloud County this Thursday, April 21st when the T-Birds begin a four-game KJCCC West Division series with Seward County Community College at Lee Doyen Field. Set for a 1 PM doubleheader, CCCC will look to reclaim first place in the KJCCC West Division this weekend as the T-Birds will start the weekend a game-back in the win column of Barton who is idle this weekend in conference play. Seward County enters the series on Thursday with a 12-30 overall record and 5-15 mark in the KJCCC as the T-Birds
