CONCORDIA, Kan. – Cloud County Community College head baseball coach Eric Gilliland has announced that five current T-Bird players have signed National Letters of Intent to continue their baseball careers following the conclusion of the 2023-24 baseball season at CCCC.

All five signees have signed with NCAA Division I Universities led by Topeka, Kansas native Kevin Mannell who will join Mississippi State University in the fall of 2024. Also signing NCAA Division I Letters of Intent are Scott Rienguette (Kansas State University), Gavin Roy (Washington State University), Demitri Shakotko (Southeast Missouri State University), and Carson Latimer (Sacramento State University). 

"We are extremely proud of these student-athletes and their signings" remarked Gilliland. "We look forward to having them lead us on the field in the spring and following their careers moving on beyond Cloud."

Mannell is in his first season with the T-Birds after spending his first two collegiate seasons at Kansas State University where he was unable to play due to injury. One of the top ranked players in the state of Kansas in 2021, Mannell was a First-Team All-Centennial League player as a senior after going 6-2 overall with a 0.45 ERA a nd 40 strikeouts as a senior at Topeka Seaman High School. 

Rienguette becomes the latest T-Bird to join the Wildcats following his time with CCCC as the Sudbury, Ontario native appeared in nine games for Cloud County as a freshman out of the bullpen and held opposing batters to a .129 batting average. In 9.1 innings pitched, Riengeutte had 20 total strikeouts and allowed seven total runs while facing a total of 42 batters on the year. 

Shakotko was one of the top offensive threats in the KJCCC last season, leading Cloud County with a .413 batting average while recording 21 extra-base hits and driving in 39 total runs with an on-base percentage of .506. In KJCCC-only games,  Shakotko would hit .480 with 17 extra-base hits including seven home runs, and had a .558 OBP with an OPS of 1.362 and was named the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West and NJCAA Division I Baseball Player of the Week on consecutive days  (May 2 and May 3, 2023) while earning First-Team All-KJCCC West and Second Team All-NJCAA Region VI honors. 

Roy was a Second-Team All-KJCCC West selection as a freshman after finishing third on the team in batting average with a .337 batting average to go along with 17 extra-base hits and 36 RBI in his freshman campaign. Leading the T-Birds with 25 stolen bases in 26 attempts, Roy would finish the season ranked seventh among all KJCCC Division I baseball players in the stolen base department with 19 of his stolen bases coming against conference foes. 

Latimer had an impressive summer campaign with the Victoria Harbourcats of the West Coast League, a high-level collegiate summer league where he appeared in 11 games and was named a WCL All-Star after recording a 0.88 ERA in 20.1 innings pitched with 16 strikeouts, a 1-0 record, and two saves. Giving up just two earned runs all summer (both coming on June 10th against Wenatchee), Latimer would throw his final 16 innings of the summer without allowing a run to score while holding opponents to a .211 batting average. Last season with Cloud County, Latimer would appear in nine games while making four starts and threw a total of 14.1 innings while striking out 20 batters and holding opponents to a .231 batting average. 

Cloud County is set to begin their 2024 season on February 8th against Kansas Wesleyan University JV with their home opener scheduled for Saturday, February 17th against Marshalltown Community College. The T-Birds will host NJCAA Region VI Champion and NJCAA World Series participant Johnson County on Saturday, March 2nd, and begin KJCCC West play five days later at home against Colby on March 7th. The full 56-game schedule for CCCC can be found here: 2024 Cloud County baseball schedule