Baseball | 4/17/2025 9:54:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Cloud County Community College baseball team put on a hitting display Thursday, April 17, slugging six home runs en route to a doubleheader sweep over Butler Community College in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play. The T-Birds have now won ten straight games with the wins, improving their overall record to 33-11 and moving to 17-5 in conference action.

Cloud County opened the afternoon with an 8-4 win in seven innings in game one. The T-Birds scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning, highlighted by a solo home run by redshirt freshman Matthew Evans, an RBI double by freshman Joey Marino, and an RBI single by freshman Kaden Budke.

After Butler got on the board with one run in the top of the second, the T-Birds scored two more runs in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore Nolan Freund scored sophomore Austin Coyle on a sacrifice fly, while Marino added another RBI hit to drive in Evans.

The Grizzlies continued to find answers, scoring one run in the third and two more runs in the fourth to trail 5-4. Cloud County was held scoreless in the fourth, but later stretched its lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman Luke Clayton doubled to left field before being brought home on an RBI double to left-center by sophomore Cam Macleod.

Sophomore pitcher Jack MacIntosh retired Butler in order in the fifth and sixth innings. The T-Birds scored the final two runs of the game in the bottom of the sixth. After Marino delivered a one-out stand-up double to center field, sophomore Gannon White drove him home on an RBI single to center. White later scored on an RBI single to right field by Clayton, giving the T-Birds the 8-4 win.

MacIntosh earned the save, pitching three innings in relief where he allowed no runs on one hit with one strikeout. Freshman right-hander Stocton Timbrook improved his overall record to 3-1, pitching the first four innings and surrendering four runs, three earned, on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

Cloud County collected 14 hits in the win, led by Evans who went 3-for-4 with a home run and a triple, two runs scored and one RBI. Marino also finished 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBI.

The second game saw the T-Birds pick up where they left off. Evans opened the scoring with an RBI double to left field, scoring Coyle. Marino soon followed with an RBI single to score Evans.

Cloud County sophomore Caden Marcum pitched five scoreless innings on his way to his fifth win of the season. Marcum only allowed four hits while striking out five.

Leading 2-0 entering the bottom of the fourth, the T-Birds erupted with a four-run frame. Macleod led off the inning with a solo home run. After freshman Lucas Laukkanen and Coyle both reached on infield singles, Cloud County successfully executed a double steal that saw Laukkanen score from third. Evans then followed by smashing a towering two-run home run to right-center field to give the T-Birds a 6-0 advantage.

Clayton and Macleod drilled back-to-back solo home runs in the bottom of the fifth to give the T-Birds a commanding 8-0 lead.

Macleod then sealed the victory with a walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to score Clayton, giving Cloud County the 10-0 victory.

Macleod went 3-for-4 with three home runs, three runs scored and four RBI. Macleod leads the T-Birds with 10 home runs on the year and is fourth on the team in RBI with 33.

Evans batted 4-for-4 with a home run, a double, two runs scored and three RBI. Evans has improved his batting average to .377 with a .608 slugging-percentage after going deep for the fourth and fifth times this season.

Laukkanen added two hits with one run scored, while Clayton, Coyle, Marino and sophomore Nolan Freund had one hit apiece.

Sophomore Myles Chamberlain closed the final two innings without giving up a hit with two strikeouts.

Cloud County will look to complete the series sweep when they head to El Dorado, Kansas on Friday, April 18 to face the Butler Grizzlies in another doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm from McDonald Stadium.