LIBERAL, Kan. – Home field advantage in the opening round of the 2022 NJCAA Region VI Tournament has officially been clinched by the Cloud County Community College baseball team as the T-Birds would split a Sunday road doubleheader with Seward County Community College to win the series three games to one following a 3-2 defeat and 5-2 victory at Brent Gould Field in Liberal, Kansas on April 24th.
With five games remaining on the 2022 regular-season schedule, Cloud County improves to 37-12 overall and 20-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Seward County is now 13-33 overall and 6-18 in the KJCCC.
"Today may have been the best day of baseball we played in conference play all year," said head coach
Eric Gilliland in a post-game interview. "Unfortunately, the doubleheader resulted in a split as we still got a series victory." "We pitched extremely well, fielded the ball cleanly, and had lout at bats all day long that just did not turn into a lot of runs." "If we can continue to play that type of baseball into the end of the regular season, we will have a shot to accomplish the goals that we set at the beginning of the year."
GAME ONE:
The intensity and strong pitching saw in the opening two games of the four-game series that was played on Thursday as the two teams would combine for just three hits through three innings of play. Of the three hits, Cloud County would record just one of the hits in the first three innings with the lone hit by CCCC staying just inside the right-field foul pole and out of the ballpark for
Tom Poole's league-leading 18th home run of the year to give the T-Birds a 1-0 lead. The top of the third would also see Poole come around to score and add to the Cloud County lead as a leadoff walk for the freshman would be followed by a stolen base and advancement on a wild pitch to set up a
Garrett Redden sacrifice fly to put CCCC up 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth.
Facing just two batters over the minimum through four innings of play, T-Bird starting pitcher
Jack Mount would keep Seward County hitters at bay throughout the day as strikeouts would rack up with two strikeouts in the first, third, and fourth innings to go along with a single strikeout in the third to give the Quebec, Canada native seven strikeouts through four innings. Neither team would be able to anything going offensively in the fifth as Mount would add another three strikeouts to his total to keep CCCC out in front 2-0 into the sixth.
Trouble for the T-Birds in the bottom of the sixth would see a throwing error to lead off the inning put a Saint runner on second with no outs before a one-out single put runners on the corners. A walk to load the bases would then force Cloud County into making a pitching change as Mount's day would come to an end following a career-high 12 strikeouts. Entering reliever
Giordano Mezzomo, SCCC would be unable to produce any offense with the bases loaded as back-to-back strikeouts would end the inning and get CCCC out of the jam to keep the score at 2-0.
Unable to add an insurance run to their lead in the top of the seventh, Cloud County would once again find themselves a jam in the bottom of the seventh following a leadoff walk and double down the left-field line to put the game-tying run at second with no outs. Following another move to the bullpen, the T-Birds would elect to issue an intentional walk to set up a force out at any base before seeing an RBI single make its way through the left side of the infield to pull Seward County within one. With the top of the lineup up, SCCC would hit into a fielder's choice with CCCC cutting down the game-tying run at the plate before seeing another aggressive at bat from the Saints lead to a two-RBI game-winning single just inside the third-base bag that would give Seward County their first win of the series.
Held scoreless over the final four innings of play, Cloud County would be limited to just two hits total in the game with both hits going for extra bases. Stranding eight base runners would prove to be crucial as five walks and two hit batters would not turn into the offense that CCCC would need to get a series win in game one of the doubleheader. Of the 19 outs recorded by the T-Birds defensively, 14 would be by strikeout with Mount (12) and Mezzomo (two) allowing just two runs on four hits through the first six-plus innings.
GAME TWO:
With a series win now on the line in the finale, Cloud County would wait for all of one pitch to take their first lead of the game as sophomore
Ian Riley would hit a leadoff solo home run to right field to put CCCC up 1-0. Working around a one-out single by Seward County, the T-Birds would double their lead in the top of the second as singles from
Danny Infante and
Ty Wevers to lead off the inning would be followed by a fly out from
Alexander Diaz to move Infante to third and allow
Tristan Tenorio to hit a sacrifice fly.
A quick one-two-three inning by SCCC in the bottom of the second would bring Cloud County back up to the plate where a one-out double and walk would be erased on an inning-ending double play that would keep things at a 2-0 CCCC lead. Seward County would strand a one-out double in the bottom of the third before seeing both teams go scoreless in the fourth. With Riley due up to lead off the top of the fifth, a bunt single and hit batter would put two runners on followed by a Poole flyout that moved Riley to third. Putting
Brock Wollin in motion to steal second and put two runners in scoring position, cleanup hitter
Kolden Howerton would hit a two-RBI double into the right center field gap that would put Cloud County up 4-0.
Working with more run support than they were able to produce in game one, the T-Birds would be able to continue holding the Saints in check by striking out two of the three batters in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff home run from Infante on an 0-1 pitch to lead off the top of the sixth would add another run for Cloud County to give CCCC their largest lead of the day. Capping off a career-long seven-inning outing on the mound by holding Seward County hitless in both the sixth and seventh, starting pitcher
Joel Benes would see his day come to an end after 82 pitches and nine strikeouts while allowing just three hits.
Cloud County would be unable to turn a leadoff four-pitch walk and Diaz two-out single into anything in the eighth before working around a two-out bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth as a potential Saint rally would end on a fly out to Riley in center field. Held scoreless in the top of the ninth, CCCC would see Seward County manage to put some pressure on the T-Birds in the final half-inning of play as a one-out walk and two-out walk would set up a pinch-hit two-RBI triple to extend the game. Not quite out of danger, Cloud County reliever
Brady Stuewe would be able to induce a game-ending popup to Infante at second to salvage at least one win in the doubleheader.
Remaining perfect on the mound, Benes would run his record to 3-0 on the year as only four batters would reach base against the Firth, Nebraska native. The outing marks a second-straight scoreless outing of at least five innings from Benes in conference play as the T-Birds are now 3-0 in games started by Benes on the mound.
Breaking out of the offensive woes that would be had in game one, Cloud County would pound out 13 hits with both Howerton and Infante going a perfect three-for-three. Five of the 13 hits would go for extra-bases as the T-Birds would also steal two bases and draw four walks in addition to two hit batters.
What's Next?
The final KJCCC series of the year for Cloud County will begin on Thursday, April 28th at 1 PM as the T-Birds will head to Great Bend, Kansas to take on KJCCC West Division leader Barton Community College for a 1 PM doubleheader. Barton dropped three games in a four-game home and home series against Coffeyville Community College this past weekend as all four games would be decided by one run. Holding a 32-14 overall record and 18-6 mark in the KJCCC, Barton will travel for a single, nine-inning non-conference game with Hesston College on Tuesday before taking on CCCC in what will be a battle of the top two teams in the KJCCC West.
