CONCORDIA, Kan. – Totaling 11 runs across the first two innings of two games, the Cloud County Community College baseball team jumped out to early leads and never looked back on their way to opening Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division play with a home doubleheader sweep over Colby Community College at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Wednesday, March 6th.
Winning game one by a score of 9-2, Cloud County went on to earn the sweep with an 11-4 win in game two to improve to 13-6 overall and 2-0 in the KJCCC West. Colby falls to 1-13 overall with the defeats and 0-2 in conference play while seeing their losing streak extended to 13 games.
Game One:
Two errors led to an earned run being given up by the T-Birds in the top of the first as CCCC trailed 1-0 heading into their first opportunity at the plate when a
Gavin Roy one-out single and stolen base set up a
Jakob Poturnak RBI single to tie the game two batters later. After a
Nolan Freund walk and
Noah Konings RBI single to put runners on the corners,
Cam MaCleod loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch before seeing
Landon Meyer deliver a grand slam to clear the bases and cap off a six-run inning to give Cloud County a 6-1 lead.
The five-run advantage was more than enough for T-Bird starting pitcher
Kevin Mannell to work with as the Topeka, Kansas native allowed just one bas runner over the next three innings of work on a two-out throwing error in the third while going on to strike out six before seeing Cloud County tack on another two runs on a throwing error by the Trojans in the bottom of the fourth to exit the game with an 8-1 lead. Both teams were retired in order in the fifth before seeing a leadoff hit batter for Colby lead to a run in the top of the sixth as the Trojans scored a run on a popup in foul territory before giving a run right back to the T-Birds in the bottom of the sixth with a Freund RBI double to make it a 9-2 contest. CCCC reliever
Zach Sharshel finished off a three-inning outing in the top of the seventh by retiring Colby in order as Cloud County has now won all eight game opening games of a doubleheader this season.
At the plate, Clou County saw Roy lead all players with three hits while scoring twice with Meyer driving in a game-high four with the lone home run of the game. The only other T-Bird to record multiple hits was
Easton Norris with two with Poturnak and Freund each drawing one walk. On the mound, both Mannell and Sharshel allowed just one hit and one run reach, combining to strikeout seven while stranding four Colby base runners. The Trojans went two-for-26 offensively and were held without an extra-base hit.
Game Two:
With neither team scoring in the opening inning of the second game of the day, Cloud County pushed across a single run in the bottom of the second on an RBI fielder's choice by
Austin Coyle before adding four runs in the bottom of the third with three runs coming home on a Poturnak three-run home run to score Freund and
Demitri Shakotko. The other run in the inning came on a Freund RBI single to score Roy after a leadoff single as CCCC took a 5-0 lead into the top of the third. Things remained a 5-0 game until the top of the fifth when Colby pushed across a run with a leadoff single coming around to score later in the inning on a wild pitch as the T-Birds were still in control of the game at the midway point of the contest.
Another single run by Colby in the top of the sixth allowed the Trojans to get back within four at 6-2, but only for half an inning as Cloud County used a Shakotko RBI double to score Roy for the fourth time on the day to go back up 7-2 and eventually 9-2 in the bottom of the seventh with a Coyle two-run home run. Back-to-back CCCC RBI doubles in the eighth provided another two runs of support to make the score 11-2 in favor of the T-Birds with Colby managing to push across two runs in the top of the ninth before seeing the game end on a strikeout to close out the Cloud County sweep.
20 hits in 42 at-bats saw a potent T-Bird offense have five different players record at least two hits each with Roy and Konings both having four-hit games. Shakotko and MaCleod had three hits each while Poturnak and Coyle each drove in a game-high three runs with nine different players having at least one hit and six different players driving in at least one run.
A trio of Cloud County pitchers combined in on the victory with
TJ Coats improving to 3-1 overall after throwing six innings and allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts to the 24 batters he faced.
John Klus threw two scoreless innings and allowed just one hit while
Wil Yamka finished the game off in the ninth by allowing two runs on three hits to go along with two strikeouts.
What's Next?
The opening week of KJCCC play will come to a close on Saturday, March 9th as Cloud County makes a return trip out to Colby to take on the Trojans in a 1 PM doubleheader. CCCC will be have a chance at a series win in game one with a five-game winning streak against the Trojans being carried into the doubleheader on Saturday.
