Baseball | 3/13/2025 8:13:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Cloud County Community College baseball team run-ruled Dodge City Community College in both games of a Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference doubleheader at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia on Thursday, March 13. The T-Birds took the opener 14-4 in six innings before posting a 19-9 victory in seven innings in the nightcap.

Cloud County has extended its winning streak to nine games to improve to 17-5 overall and 6-0 in conference play. The T-Birds have also improved to 11-1 at home this season, while Dodge City drops to 13-8 overall and 1-5 in conference action.

Sophomore Caden Marcum improved his record to 2-1 on the year with the win in game one. Marcum pitched five innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits while walking one and striking out seven. Freshman Stocton Timbrook pitched the sixth, allowing one run on one hit.

Offensively, the T-Birds collected nine hits with three home runs. Sophomore Nolan Freund led off the bottom of the third with a solo shot. Later that same inning, sophomore catcher Cam Macleod crushed a three-run homer to left field, driving in redshirt freshman David Simmons and freshman Kaden Budke. Budke hammered a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the sixth, scoring Simmons, freshman Joey Marino and redshirt freshman Matthew Evans, part of an eight-run, sixth-inning outburst for the T-Birds.

Budke finished the game 2-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBI. Macleod also had two runs scored with three RBI. Freund scored three runs. Sophomore Austin Coyle went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Cloud County's offensive assault continued with 19 runs on 16 hits with 18 RBI in the team's 19-9 run-rule win in game two. The T-Birds scored six runs in the first and eight runs in the third to blow the game open. Cloud County added two more runs in the fourth, one run in the sixth and two runs in the seventh.

The action started in the first when Simmons launched a two-run homer to left, driving in sophomore Noah Konings and Coyle. Evans scored Budke on an RBI single to right field and Evans was brought home on an RBI single to left field by freshman Lucas Laukkanen to give the T-Birds an early 6-1 lead.

Cloud County's huge third inning began with back-to-back base hits by sophomore Easton Mould and Evans. Macleod then powered a towering three-run blast to left field for his second home run of the afternoon, extending Cloud County's lead to 9-4.

The inning continued with the T-Birds loading the bases when Laukkanen was hit by a pitch, followed by Konings reaching on a fielder's choice and Coyle picking up the fourth hit of the inning with a single to left field. Freund then smacked a double to left-center, scoring three more runs to push the lead out to 12-4.

The T-Birds continued to pounce on Dodge City in the third. Mould doubled to left field to score Freund. Evans also had an RBI ground out, scoring Simmons.

After the Conquistadors scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning, Simmons connected on a two-RBI single to center field in the bottom of half of the frame, scoring Coyle and Freund. The T-Birds took a commanding 16-6 lead into the fifth.

With Cloud County holding a comfortable lead, freshman Evan Bogart pitched the final three innings. The right-hander from Salina, Kansas allowed three earned runs on four hits while walking a pair and striking out two to earn his first save of the season.

The T-Birds added an additional run in the sixth on an RBI flyout by Freund that scored Laukkanen. Macleod recorded an RBI double to left-center in the bottom of the seventh, and Laukkanen finished the game with a walk-off RBI single to left.

Laukkanen, Evans and Mould had three hits each. Simmons had two hits and three RBI. Macleod had two hits and a team-high five RBI. Freund also finished with five RBI.

Freshman pitcher Ben Soke earned his first win of the year out of the bullpen. Soke threw two innings, permitting one run on four hits while striking out two. Sophomore Jack MacIntosh started the game, pitching two innings where he allowed four hits and four runs and recorded four strikeouts.

Cloud County is set to travel to Dodge City for the final two games of the conference series on Sunday, March 16. First pitch is set for 1 pm from Cavalier Field.