Softball | 5/28/2025 1:43:00 PM
The Cloud County Community College softball team concluded the 2025 season at 16-28 overall and 7-15 in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play, marking a five-win improvement over last season's conference performance. The team also wrapped up its season winning six of its final nine games. Four players this month were named as All-Conference D2 Softball honorable mention selections. The T-Birds are celebrating another major accomplishment as four sophomores have signed with four-year colleges.
Pitcher and first baseman
Paige Mahler is headed to Storm Lake, Iowa to play for the Buena Vista Beavers, while center fielder
Shaylee Keslar, third baseman
Harley Smith and catcher
Camille Stauffer have all signed to play for the Bethany College Swedes in Lindsborg, Kansas.
Mahler was the top pitcher on Cloud County's staff in 2025. The sophomore from Adams, Nebraska had a 9-10 overall record with 13 complete games and a 4.54 ERA. Mahler, an all-conference honorable mention pick, had a team-high 73 strikeouts in 108 innings pitched, and pitched 11 games this past spring with at least four strikeouts. Mahler had a career-high nine strikeouts on March 2, 2025 in the team's 11-3 win over Iowa Lakes Community College. Mahler has signed to play for Buena Vista University, an NCAA Division III school that competes in the American Rivers Conference.
Keslar, a transfer from Hesston College, batted .274 in her only season with the T-Birds. The sophomore from Clatonia, Nebraska led the team with 11 doubles. Keslar finished the 2025 campaign with 29 hits and 16 RBI while manning center field for Cloud County.
A two-year starter for the T-Birds, Smith moved from shortstop to third base this past spring. Smith recorded a .919 fielding percentage at third with 52 put outs and 72 assists. At the plate, Smith had a .318 batting average with 41 hits, including five doubles, 17 runs scored and six stolen bases.
Stauffer led the T-Birds at the plate with a .381 batting average and a .646 slugging-percentage in 2025. Stauffer, an all-conference honorable mention selection, tallied 43 hits, including a team-leading 14 extra-base hits. Stauffer had six doubles and eight home runs while posting a team-high 40 RBI. She had 14 multi-hit games during the season, on her way to twice being named the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Division 2 Softball Player of the Week as well as the NJCAA Division 2 Softball Player of the Week on March 5, 2025. A sophomore from Milford, Nebraska, Stauffer had a .978 fielding-percentage behind the plate with 85 put outs.
Keslar, Smith and Stauffer each have committed to Bethany College, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) institution and a member of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC).
