CONCORDIA, Kan. – Early leads of 4-0 in game one and 5-0 in game two would prove to be enough offense for the Cloud County Community College baseball team to sweep a home doubleheader from Garden City Community College by scores of 4-3 and 5-2 at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Friday, April 8th.
 
The doubleheader sweep moves CCCC to 30-8 overall with 14 wins in their past 15 contests to put the T-Birds at 13-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Garden City falls to 10-24-1 overall and 3-11 in the KJCCC West Division.
 
GAME ONE:
Despite limited offensive production with just six total hits in the game, Cloud County would be able to take advantage of a GCCC error and four walks issued by Broncbuster pitchers to claim a 1-0 lead after an inning of play as the first two batters of the game for CCCC would reach by walk to set up a Williams Camacho-Soto RBI single to bring home Ian Riley. The lone run scored by the T-Birds would be the only offense seen through two and a half innings of action as CCCC starting pitcher Giordano Mezzomo would face the minimum number of batters through three innings while recording seven strikeouts the first time through the Garden City lineup with the sophomore cruising through the first three innings of play.
 
Cloud County's one-run lead would turn into a three-run lead in the bottom of the third as Riley would draw his second walk of the afternoon before seeing Garrett Redden take advantage of a howling northwest wind that would carry a ball from center field into right-center field and over the fence for a two-run home run to give the T-Birds a 3-0 lead. A one-out rally by Garden City in the top of the fourth would see the first real threat that CCCC would have to face in the game as a walk and double down the left-field line would put two runners in scoring position before back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and strand both runners.
 
With the key moment in the top of the fourth keeping the Broncbusters off the scoreboard, Cloud County would be able to take advantage of a fielding error to lead off the bottom of the fourth and put a base runner on for an Alex Diaz double down the first-base line as the ball would hit off the bag and shoot straight up in the air and into right field to score Camacho-Soto. Following an Adler Pierson walk, CCCC would see the inning end on an infield pop up as two T-Bird runners would be stranded.
 
Things would become much more interesting in the top of the fifth as a leadoff double followed by three-straight infield hits would bring home a run and load the bases with no outs. After a foul out into shallow right field that would not be deep enough to drive in a run on a sacrifice fly, GCCC would get two runs home on an RBI single into right field before pushing across a second run on a throwing error to pull within one. Following a pitching change, the Broncbusters would get one more infield hit on a ball that would nearly get out of play before having the wind blow the ball back into fair territory right in front of home plate to load the bases, but an inning-ending double play would be had on the next at-bat as a fly out to left field would see Tristan Tenorio throw a strike to catcher Ty Wevers to apply a tag and throw out the runner trying to tag up and tie the game.
 
Having just avoided seeing a four-run lead completely erased in the top of the fifth, Cloud County would be unable to take advantage of the momentum shifting moment in their end of the fifth as a strikeout and fly out would begin the inning that would see two runners stranded on a pop out to shortstop. Garden City would appear poised to take advantage of a T-Bird fielding error to put the game-tying runner on base in the top of the sixth but a 3-6-3 double play would erase the runner and be followed by a strikeout to keep things at a one-run CCCC lead.
 
Cloud County would have one last opportunity to push across an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth and see a leadoff Ty Wevers double stranded at third with a line out and groundout ending the inning before taking care of business in the top of the seventh with a one-two-three inning to end the game and hold on for their second one-run victory of the year.
 
Wevers would record two of the six Cloud County hits to finish as the only T-Bird with multiple hits in the game while Riley would draw two of the four walks issued by Garden City. Of the six hits, three would go for extra bases as CCCC would limit their strikeouts to just four total in the game. On the mound, Mezzomo would pick up win number four of the season with a 4.1 inning outing that featured nine strikeouts and just one walk on 75 pitches before seeing Rans Sanders throw the final 2.2 innings after entering with the game-tying run at second to pick up his third save of the year.
 
GAME TWO:
Striking for a single run off a leadoff double from Riley and RBI groundout from Tom Poole, Cloud County would also plate a single run in the bottom of the second with a leadoff solo home run from Brock Wollin and single run in the third with Riley coming around to score on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch for Camacho-Soto. CCCC would finally break the trend of single runs in the bottom of the fourth as a hit batter and base hit single would put runners on the corners to set up a stolen base for Riley and Adler Pierson to score on a wild pitch to bring home a run. Riley would then add a second stolen base to take third base before coming home to score on a balk call as Cloud County would take their largest lead of the afternoon at 5-0 heading to the top of the sixth.
 
Following five shutout innings from starting pitcher Christian Womble, the T-Birds would see Garden City turn a leadoff single and two-out walk into some production offensively as a double down the left-field line and into the left-field corner would bring home both runners to cut the CCCC lead down to three. Cloud County would see an inning-ending double play erase a one-out single in their end of the sixth before working around a one-out single with two strikeouts to end the top of the seventh to keep the score at 5-2 in favor of Cloud County.
 
Another empty opportunity at the plate for the T-Birds in the bottom of the seventh would allow GCCC to have a chance heading to the top of the eighth as a fielding error and stolen base would put a runner on second with two outs. With the runner in scoring position, Garden City would once again find themselves coming up empty while in need of a clutch hit as a strikeout would end the inning and strand yet another Broncbuster runner. Cloud County would manage to strand a runner of their own in the bottom of the eighth as things would remain a three-run lead heading into the top of the ninth where back-to-back singles for Garden City would bring the game-tying run to the plate. A key 5-4-3 double play would put two outs on the board for CCCC however as a runner at third would wind up getting stranded on the next at-bat with a strikeout ending the contest to secure a Cloud County win.
 
Pitching would once again be the story of day for the T-Birds as Womble would record seven of the 13 strikeouts thrown by the three Cloud County pitchers as both Brady Stuewe (one innings, two strikeouts) and Conner Woods (two innings, four strikeouts) would combine to keep the Broncbusters off the board in the final three innings of play. The appearance by Woods would result in the fourth save of the year for the Winfield, Kansas native as half of the eight batters he faced would go down by strikeout.
 
As for the CCCC offense, the T-Birds would again be outhit by Garden City by a 9-8 margin despite seeing three of their hits go for extra bases compared to just two for the Broncbusters. The biggest key in the contest would come in terms of stranded baserunners as GCCC would strand 13 while Cloud County would strand nine after seeing Riley and Redden combine for four of the eight total hits.
 
What's Next?
A quick turnaround for both the T-Birds and Broncbusters sees the series resume tomorrow afternoon at Williams Stadium in Garden City with a 3 PM start. Cloud County will be going for a fourth-straight series win in conference play with a possibility of a conference sweep still available pending the outcome of the first game on Saturday.