COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Facing early deficits, the Cloud County Community College softball team was unable to put together enough offense to keep up with Iowa Western Community College in a pair of road defeats in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Saturday, March 16th.
Falling to 12-6 overall, Cloud County has now lost three straight games while Iowa Western improves to 19-13 overall while running their winning streak to four straight games after finishing off a six-game week with a 4-2 record.
Game One:
After stranding a pair of one-out walks in the top of the first, Cloud County fell into a 5-0 hole as the Reivers put together a five-hit inning in addition to taking advantage of a CCCC error to send nine batters to the plate and build an early lead. The advantage for IWCC grew again in the bottom of the second as four more hits led to a three-run inning for Iowa Western to take an 8-0 lead and eventually 11-0 in the bottom of the fourth with three straight one-out hits setting up a three-run inning. In the top of the fourth, Cloud County was retired in order as the Reivers put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning to plate a run on a wild pitch before stranding the bases loaded with a lineout ending the inning and sending things to the fifth where CCCC needed to score at least five runs to extend the game. Unfortunately for the T-Birds three strikeouts put an end to the game as Iowa Western faced just three batters over the minimum in the game to end the contest early.
Held hitless in the game, Cloud County's lone three base runners came in the form of walks by
Alyssa Reynolds,
Kaylee Pinneo, and Maddie McIntyre as all three were stranded across the first three innings of play. Both
Kiera Brack and Reynolds saw time in the circle, with Brack taking the loss after throwing three innings and striking out three before seeing Reynolds pitch the fourth and allow one earned run on a hit and three walks after throwing 25 total pitches.
Game Two:
Home runs proved problematic early in game two as CCCC saw a two-run home run for Iowa Western in the bottom of the first followed by back-to-back solo home runs in the bottom of the second to fall behind 4-0 after two innings of play. Getting on the scoreboard in the top of the third, the T-Birds saw a
Brooke Bonar one-out single set up a Pinneo RBI single later in the inning before getting a
Camille Stauffer walk to load the bases and
Brooklynn McCormick RBI single to cut the Reiver lead in half at 4-2. Still not done in the inning, Brack drew an RBI walk to bring Cloud County within a run before seeing the inning end on an infield popup in foul territory as three stranded bases runners loomed large for the T-Birds.
The one-run deficit for CCCC remained in place at the end of the inning as the T-Birds were able to work around a one-out walk and two singles by Iowa Western to return the favor and strand a trio of Reiver base runners before seeing a leadoff walk and two out hit batter get stranded with a pitching change made by IWCC to get out of a jam in the top of the fourth to maintain their lead. The momentum flipped in between the top and bottom of the fourth as Iowa Western hit back-to-back doubles to begin the bottom of the inning as part of a five-hit, six-run inning that broke the game open and turned a one-run lead into a commanding 10-3 advantage going into the fifth. Unable to do anything with a one-out single from McCormick, CCCC saw back-to-back hits in the bottom of the fifth end the game as the lead grew to eight on a game-ending RBI single.
McCormick finished as the lone player for Cloud County to record multiple hits in the game by going two-for-three with an RBI while
Kaitlynn Baca, Pinneo, and Bonar all had one hit each with the T-Birds drawing three walks and one hit batter in the game. CCCC used another two pitchers in the contest with
Brecken Whitney (three innings) and
Paige Mahler (one inning) both seeing time and each striking out one batter while combining for 89 total pitches.
What's Next?
Returning home for the first time since March 9th, Cloud County will see a return visit from Central Community College come in the form of a 2 PM doubleheader at the CCCC Softball Field on Wednesday, March 20th. In this season's earlier doubleheader in Columbus, NE on March 1st, the T-Birds defeated the Raiders 7-2 and 12-11 to sweep a doubleheader as part of a six-game winning streak. Central will have had a full 10 days off between games, having last played on March 10th with a home doubleheader sweep over Northeast Community College to move to 10-7 overall.
