CONCORDIA, Kan. – Scoring in all but one inning, the Cloud County Community College softball team would have little trouble with visiting Northwest Kansas Technical College by winning 18-0 and 9-0 in a pair of five-inning games to sweep a non-conference doubleheader at the Concordia Sports in Concordia, Kansas on Tuesday, February 21st.
Picking up their fifth win in six tries over the Mavericks in the past two seasons, Cloud County sweeps an opening day doubleheader for the fourth consecutive season to improve to 2-0 on the year while Northwest Kansas Tech falls to 0-2 to open the season.
GAME ONE:
Wasting no time to jump out to an early lead, CCCC would get through a quick top of the first with two strikeouts from freshman
Jayden Rehlander before taking advantage of a
Ryleigh Jones leadoff walk and pair of stolen bases to set up an
Emily Kvasnicka sacrifice fly to get the T-Birds on the board with a 1-0 lead after an inning. Rehlander would then give up what would be Northwest Kansas Tech's only hit of the contest with a leadoff single in the top of the second before facing the minimum after erasing the runner two batters later on a stolen base attempt.
The bats would warm up for Cloud County in the bottom of the second with another leadoff walk setting the stage for five of the first six batters to safely reach base with
Brooklynn McCormick,
Zoie Kincade,
Kaitlynn Baca, and Jones all recording base-hit singles. The four hits would help lead to four runs to put CCCC up 5-0 before a flyout would put a second out on the board with a runner at third before a two-out walk from Kvasnicka to extend the inning and bring up Rehlander who would hit an RBI single. The inning would continue with
McKenna Mayhew hitting an RBI single to cap off a six-run inning for Cloud County that would put the T-Birds in full control and up 7-0.
Back-to-back strikeouts to begin the top of the third would make for another quick inning defensively for CCCC, as the T-Birds would get back up to the plate and turn a walk into a run with Kincade coming around to score on a Baca RBI groundout. With the lead for Cloud County already sitting at eight, the offense for CCCC would really get going in the bottom of the fourth as 16 batters would come to the plate as part of a 10-run, eight-hit inning with Mayhew and Jones delivering the biggest hits of the inning with an RBI double and two-run home run.
With the game in control and needing just three outs to close out the contest, the T-Birds would opt to bring in reliever
Kiera Brack who would work a perfect one-two-three top of the fifth which included a game-ending strikeout to give Cloud County a one-hit shutout. Offensively, CCCC would pound out 16 and draw eight walks to put 24 runners on base while stranding just six runners in their four offensive innings. Both Jones and Mayhew would go a perfect three-for-three while combining for seven runs driven in as five different players for Cloud County would drive in more than one run. In the circle, Rehlander's four-inning outing in her collegiate debut would include six strikeouts while facing just two batters over the minimum.
GAME TWO:
Carrying their offensive explosion over to game two, Cloud County would turn a leadoff walk and stolen base into a pair of runs as a Maverick error would lead to a second run in the opening inning that would see CCCC take advantage of NWKT mistakes. The 2-0 T-Bird lead would grow to 5-0 in the bottom of the second as a leadoff infield single from McCormick would lead to five base-hit singles allowing eight batters to come to the plate. A one-two-three top of the third would make way for a four-run bottom half of the inning with four more hits and a walk combined with an error lead to a commanding 9-0 advantage for the T-Birds.
The final inning and a half would see both teams unable to produce any runs with both Cloud county and Northwest Kansas Tech recording one hit each in the fourth as CCCC would use two groundouts and a strikeout to end the game in the top of the fifth via run rule.
Following up their 16 hits in game one, Cloud County would record another 10 hits in game two with Mayhew recording the only extra-base hit of the game for the T-Birds with a fourth-inning triple. Jones, Baca, and McCormick would all record two hits in the game, with Jones driving in another two runs and scoring three times to finish the day with a perfect five-for-five at the plate. After finishing out game one, Brack would return to the circle to start game two and toss a scoreless 2.2 innings where she would allow just one hit before seeing
Lynsey Stewart toss the final 2.1 innings and strike out two to earn her first pitching victory of the year.
What's Next?
A four-game weekend in Oklahoma awaits Cloud County as the T-Birds will begin their trip with a 1 PM doubleheader at Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on Saturday, February 25th. CCCC will then play a 12 PM doubleheader at Northern Oklahoma College-Enid in what will be their only four games away from Concordia in the opening three weeks of the season.
