CONCORDIA, Kan. – Postseason play is set to begin for the Cloud County Community College baseball team on Thursday, May 9th at 3 PM when the T-Birds begin the opening round of the NJCAA Region VI Plains District Tournament at home against Allen Community College.
 
Following a second-place finish in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division to earn the number four overall seed in the Plains District Tournament, Cloud County will host the number-13-seeded Red Devils in a best-of-three series at Lee Doyen Field with game two set for Friday, May 10th at 2 PM and game three if necessary at 2 PM on Saturday, May 11th.
 
Hosting an opening-round playoff series for the third consecutive year, Cloud County finished the regular season with a 38-18 overall record and program-best finish in the KJCCCC West after winning 22 games in the Jayhawk Conference. Allen finished seventh in the KJCCC East Division and is 20-33 overall with an 8-24 mark in the KJCCC East Division, finishing seventh for the third straight season following a fourth-place finish in the Jayhawk East in 2021.
 
The series will mark the first meeting between Cloud County and Allen since the 2019 NJCAA Plains District Tournament best-of-three playoff series when the T-Birds hosted their first home playoff series in program history and went on to defeat the Red Devils 2-0 with a 9-7 win and 14-4 win in eight innings to advance to the double-elimination bracket portion of the tournament for the first time in program history. This season will mark the eighth time ACC has made the postseason under 10th-year head coach Clint Stoy while CCCC is making its seventh appearance under eighth-year head coach Eric Gilliland (including the canceled postseason in 2020 due to COVID). Under Stoy, Allen has advanced out of the best-of-three series just once in six attempts, with a 2-1 series win over Dodge City in 2016 as the five seed out of the KJCCC East while Cloud County has won each of their previous three home playoff series and has advanced to the bracket portion of the tournament three times in five attempts under Gilliland.
 
Cloud County is led by a mix of both pitching and offense with the T-Birds ranking fifth in the KJCCC in team ERA (5.31) and fourth in batting average against (.255) while holding the fifth-best team batting average in the league (.330). At the plate, single-season record holder in hits Demitri Shakotko is hitting a team-best .419 at the plate with 88 hits in 210 at-bats and is second on the team in runs batted in with 55. In his 55 starts, Shakotko has 26 multi-hit games including a pair of four-hit performances this season and one of three games by a T-Bird this year with at least five RBI. The Fredericton, New Brunswick native enters the postseason on a 12-game hitting streak and a 20-game reached base streak, both of which actively lead CCCC.
 
Projected game-one starter for Cloud County Kevin Mannell leads the Jayhawk Conference in ERA (1.59) with the second-most strikeouts in the KJCCC (81) while holding a 7-2 overall record in 13 starts. Having thrown 61.2 innings this season, Mannell is averaging 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings and allowed just five extra-base hits to hold opponents to a .151 average. In games that Mannell starts this season, CCCC is 10-3 overall.
 
As for Allen, the Red Devils struggled down the stretch with five straight losses to conclude the regular season as ACC has won just three of their past 15 games. Despite the slide to end the year, Allen does boast a win over number-two nationally-ranked Johnson County Community College on April 11th and has four starters with a batting average over .300. Led by Anthony Talpa with a .339 average and 18 extra-base hits, the Red Devils hit .293 as a team this season and were able to draw 192 walks and 103 hit batters to force pressure against opposing teams when at the plate. The projected game one starter for Allen is Jack Bland, a redshirt sophomore out of Papillion, Nebraska who threw a team-high 65.2 innings and struck out 45 batters to hold a 5-5 record in 15 total appearances including a complete-game win over Johnson County.
 
All three games of this week's best-of-three playoff series between Cloud County and Allen will be streamed free of charge on the T-Bird Sports Network, with a link to the broadcasts being found below. Fans can also follow live stats of the action, with the link for all three games found below.
 
The winner of the Cloud County/Allen series will play in game four of the NJCAA Plains District Tournament hosted at Eck Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University at 7 PM on Wednesday, May 15th against the winner of the Kansas City Kansas vs Seward County series. The Blue Devils finished third in the KJCCC East to earn the number-five seed in the Plains District Tournament to host the 12th-seeded Saints after both teams advanced to Wichita last season. The rest of the top side of the bracket (featuring the Cloud County/Allen winner) is top overall seed Johnson County hosting 16-seed Pratt in a best-of-three series in Overland Park and eighth-seeded Butler hosting ninth-seeded Neosho in a best-of-three series in El Dorado. A full bracket and start times for this week's games can be found at the links below.
 
Cloud County vs Allen Live Stream   |   Cloud County vs Allen Live Stats   | Plains District Tournament Central   |   Plains District Tournament Bracket