Softball | 4/17/2025 9:52:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Cloud County Community College softball team extended its current win streak to three games with a doubleheader sweep against Independence Community College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play on Thursday, April 17.

The Cloud County offense combined for 25 runs on 27 hits as the T-Birds won game one 12-4 in five innings and followed that with a 13-3 win in five innings in game two.

The T-Birds' offense was productive all afternoon, amassing 15 extra base-hits with six batters finishing with three hits or more. Sophomore Camille Stauffer led the charge with three home runs across the two games. Stauffer finished the afternoon a combined 4-for-5 with four runs scored and 8 RBI.

Cloud County staked an early 1-0 lead in the opening game when freshman Emalee Johnson led off the second inning with a double and later scored on a passed ball. The T-Birds then posted seven runs on six hits in the bottom of the fourth. Stauffer clobbered a two-run home run with one out in the fourth. Sophomore Shaylee Keslar and freshman Hailey Garcia both added RBI doubles in the frame, while freshman Bella Santin added a two-run scoring single. Santin later stole home in the inning.

Independence managed to trim the deficit to four runs in the top of the fifth inning, but the T-Birds put the game away in the bottom half of the fifth, scoring four more runs on five hits. Freshman Berkleigh Curtis had a run-scoring double. Sophomore Paige Mahler drove in Curtis and Keslar on another double, while Santin ended the game with a walk-off single that scored Mahler.

Santin finished game one 2-for-4 with one run scored and three RBI. Stauffer was 2-for-2 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBI. Mahler also had two RBI, while Curtis, Garcia and Keslar finished with two hits each.

Sophomore right-hander Brecken Whitney earned the win in the circle. Whitney allowed four runs on seven hits with two walks and one strikeout.

Mahler guided the team to the victory in game two, throwing all five innings and allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits while walking two and striking out three.

In the second game, Cloud County broke a 1-1 tie with eight runs in the bottom of the second inning. Santin got the scoring started with a triple that drove in Keslar and Garcia. A double by sophomore Harley Smith scored Santin, while freshman Maliyah Koster brought home Smith on a double of her own. Following a base-hit by Johnson, Stauffer blasted a three-run home run to give the T-Birds an 8-1 advantage. The scoring continued for Cloud County. After Keslar reached for the second time in the inning on a two-out double, freshman Kia Stokes drove her in on a double of her own.

The Pirates were able to get two runs back in the third on back-to-back RBI hits by freshman Alexis Yarnell and freshman Kylie Dennison, but the T-Birds put the game out of reach with four more runs in the bottom half of the inning. Johnson scored Smith on an RBI double, before Stauffer drilled her third home run of the day with a three-run shot that scored Koster and Johnson.

Stauffer is the current team-leader in home runs with five. She also leads the team in RBI with 36 on the season after going 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored and with six RBI in game two. Smith went 3-for-3 with two doubles, two runs scored and one RBI. Johnson also finished 3-for-3 with a double, two runs scored and two RBI. Santin had a two-hit performance with a triple and two RBI, while Garcia, Keslar, Koster and Stokes added one hit each.

Cloud County has moved to 13-25 overall and 4-12 in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action. The T-Birds will continue conference play when they head to Highland, Kansas for a pair of games against the Highland Community College Scotties on Thursday, April 24, starting at 1 pm.