Baseball | 3/27/2025 7:57:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Cloud County Community College baseball team split a doubleheader with Seward County Community College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play on Thursday, March 27 at Lee Doyen Field. The T-Birds fell 7-6 in seven innings in game one, before bouncing back to win the second game by a final score of 17-9 in nine innings.

With the split, Cloud County has improved to 21-10 overall and 10-4 in conference play.

In game one, Cloud County fell behind 6-0 after Seward County scored five runs in the second and one run in the fourth. Freshman catcher Hayden Ramage plated the first two runs with a two-run home run to left in the top of the second. Freshman Brooks Barber drove in two more runs with a double to right field, while freshman Colton Rowan added an RBI flyout.

Barber delivered a two-out RBI double to center field in the top of the fourth, scoring Rowan.

Cloud County began to slowly chip away at Seward County's lead, beginning in the bottom of the fourth inning when sophomore Nolan Freund drew a two-out walk before being brought home on an RBI triple to center field by sophomore outfielder Austin Coyle.

The T-Birds tallied another run in the bottom half of the fifth. Freshman Kaden Budke reached on a two-out single. After a single to left field by sophomore Noah Konings, freshman Matt Evans followed with a run-scoring single to right, scoring Budke to trim Seward County's lead to 6-2.

Sophomore Nathan Hopkins clubbed an RBI double to center field to score freshman Grant Cox in the top of the sixth, and the Saints extended their advantage to 7-2.

Cloud County left two runners stranded in the bottom of the sixth, but began to mount a comeback in the bottom of the seventh when sophomore Eric Bradicich led off the inning with a solo home run to left. After freshman Carter Cathers pinch hit and struck out, Konings collected a one-out single to center field. Evans then reached when he was hit by a pitch. Freshman Lucas Laukkanen recorded the second out of the inning with a flyout to left. But the T-Birds offense continued to fight back when they tallied back-to-back RBI hits starting with a double to right field by Freund that drove home Konings and Evans. Freund then scored on an RBI single to center by Coyle, cutting the deficit to one. With the tying run at first, Seward County pitcher John Langehennig managed to get freshman Joey Marino to ground out to short to end the contest.

Coyle led the offense at the plate with a 3-for-4 effort with two RBI. Konings went 2-for-3 with one run scored. Freund finished 1-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI. Bradicich, Evans and freshman Kaden Budke had one hit and one run scored each. Marino also had one hit.

Sophomore Caden Marcum took the loss. Marcum pitched four innings, allowing six runs on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. Freshman Cohen Nelson pitched the final three innings, giving up one earned on three hits with one walk and two strikeouts.

The T-Birds bounced back by smacking four home runs and scoring eight runs over the final three innings to capture a 17-9 win in nine innings in the nightcap of the doubleheader.

Seward County scored first with four runs in the top of the first, highlighted by a three-run scoring double to center by Ramage. Sophomore Kotaro Wakui added an RBI double that scored Ramage.

Cloud County was able to get back to within a run in the bottom half of the first after Konings scored Coyle on an RBI single to right, followed by a two-run home run to left by Marino.

The Saints extended its lead to 5-3 on a run-scoring single by freshman Ryan Todd in the top of the second.

Konings delivered an RBI ground out in the bottom of the third, while a ground rule double by Laukkanen led to another T-Bird run, tying the game at 5-all.

Seward County opened the fourth with four runs, including a three-run blast to right by Wakui to take a 9-5 advantage.

Evans provided Cloud County with an answer in the bottom of the fourth inning, smashing a three-run home run of his own to left field, scoring Coyle and freshman Tony Crow. Freund added a two-out solo shot to tie the game at 9-all at the end of the fourth.

Freshman right-hander Stocton Timbrook took over on the mound for Cloud County in the fifth, pitching four scoreless innings and limiting Seward County to four hits while walking one and striking out six to earn his first win of the season.

The T-Birds broke the tie in the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back RBI hits by sophomore Cam Macleod and Bradicich. Evans tallied an RBI single in the seventh and was brought home on a run-scoring bunt by Konings to push Cloud County's lead to 13-9.

Cloud County extended its run total in the eighth with a solo home run by Macleod and RBI singles by Freund and Marino to go up 17-9.

Redshirt freshman Hayden Malaise closed out the game, sitting Seward County down in order on three consecutive strikeouts in the top of the ninth.

Sophomore Jack MacIntosh started the game. MacIntosh pitched one inning, allowing four runs on two hits with three walks and one strikeout. Sophomore Myles Chamberlain threw three innings, giving up five runs, four earned, on seven hits with one strikeout.

The T-Birds recorded 20 hits, led by Freund who finished 5-for-6 with a home run and a double, three runs scored and three RBI. Evans went 3-for-3 with a home run, three runs scored and three RBI. Marino was 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and three RBI. Macleod finished 2-for-5 with one run scored and two RBI. Konings was 2-for-6 with one run scored and three RBI. Coyle went 2-for-3 with five runs scored. Laukkanen finished 2-for-5 with one RBI. Bradicich added a hit and an RBI, while Crow finished with a hit and two runs scored.

The series now moves to Liberal, Kansas on Saturday, March 30. The first game at Brent Gould Field is scheduled for 1 pm.