Softball | 4/28/2025 8:30:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Cloud County Community College softball team earned a split in a Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference doubleheader on Monday, April 28, falling 3-0 in game one before securing a 7-2 victory in game two.

With the split, Cloud County improves to 16-26 this season and 7-13 in conference play. The T-Birds wrap up its regular season with a road trip to Arkansas City, Kansas on Thursday, May 1 to play No. 20 Cowley College at 2 pm.

Sophomore Camille Stauffer homered in the top of the second inning to give the T-Birds an early 1-0 lead in the second game of the doubleheader.

Sophomore Shaylee Keslar drove in two runs on a single in the fourth inning, scoring freshman Emalee Johnson and freshman Berkleigh Curtis to push the lead to 3-0.

The T-Birds added three more runs in the fifth. Sophomore Harley Smith led off the inning with a single to right field. Freshman Maliyah Koster followed with a base-hit, and she and Smith were both able to score on a pair of defensive errors. Stauffer also reached on a single through the right side, before being driven in on a sacrifice fly by Keslar.

Stauffer went deep for the second time in the game, leading off the top of the seventh inning with a home run to left field to make it 7-0. Stauffer has a team-leading eight home runs on the year and 14 home runs for her career.

Highland scored two runs on three consecutive singles in the bottom half of the seventh, but Cloud County sophomore pitcher Paige Mahler was able to get freshman Mia Gomez to pop out in foul territory before striking out sophomore Mya King and sophomore Libbi Puga to close out the game.

Mahler has improved to 9-9 on the season after she allowed two runs, both unearned, on five hits with one walk while striking out seven. Across her last four starts, Mahler has four wins and has allowed only seven runs total while holding opponents to a .172 batting average.

Three different players had multi-hit games, led by Stauffer who went 3-for-4 with two home runs, three runs scored and two RBI. Keslar went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI. Freshman Lilly Ellison had a pair of hits. Johnson added a double with one run scored, while Curtis, Koster and Smith had one hit each. Koster also added an RBI.

The victory marked Cloud County's sixth win in its last seven games, after being shutout in game one. The T-Birds struck out ten times and left eight runners on base in the first game of the afternoon.

Sophomore Brecken Whitney took the loss in the circle. Whitney gave up three earned runs on ten hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Cloud County had six hits in the loss, including two each from Johnson and freshman Bella Santin. Smith also added a hit, while Ellison captured a pinch hit single in the seventh.