Baseball | 3/14/2026 7:07:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Cloud County Community College baseball team's 16-game winning streak ended in heartbreak as Garden City Community College rallied late for four runs in the seventh and escaped with an 8-4 win in the final game of their Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) series on Saturday, March 14.

The T-Birds (22-2, 7-1 KJCCC) split Saturday's doubleheader, claiming a dramatic 6-4 walk-off win in game one of the twin bill to secure their second consecutive KJCCC series win. Cloud County claimed 15-8 and 21-4 road wins at Garden City in the first two games of the series on Thursday, March 12.

Sophomore third baseman Kaden Budke's ninth-inning two-run home run sent the T-Birds to the game one win, blasting a two-run bomb over the left field fence for his tenth homer of the year.

Garden City struck first when sophomore Sean Togher homered on a rope to right-field in the top of the third inning, scoring freshman Aiden Roberts and sophomore Mason Tafoya to give the Broncbusters a 3-0 lead.

The T-Birds responded in the bottom half of the third when freshman outfielder Brody Seidl scored sophomore first baseman Luke Clayton on an RBI single.

Cloud County then took the lead off three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Clayton scored freshman catcher Kellan Burke on an RBI ground out. Redshirt freshman outfielder Evan Gunn scored when Budke was hit-by-a-pitch with the bases-loaded. Seidl followed by reaching on an error, scoring sophomore catcher Vasya Seymour to put the T-Birds in front at 4-3.

Both teams would be sat down in order in the fifth and sixth innings.

Garden City tied the game in the top of the seventh. The Broncbusters managed to load the bases with no one out. Freshman Jakob Wilcox delivered an RBI ground out, scoring redshirt sophomore Will Togher.

The T-Birds left a runner stranded in both the seventh and eighth innings.

Cloud County sophomore short stop Lucas Laukkanen was hit-by-a-pitch to lead-off the ninth. Budke followed with a walk-off homer, capping a thrilling extra-innings KJCCC win.

Budke finished the game 1-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored. Clayton and Seidl added an RBI each, while redshirt freshman Simon Baker recorded a seventh inning double.

Sophomore Cole Linton pitched 6.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits with one walk while punching out eight. Freshman Gage Gannon threw 1.1 innings, giving up just one walk while striking out two. Sophomore Evan Bogart pitched the scoreless ninth to earn his fourth win of the season.

The T-Birds found themselves down 4-3 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning of game two before Budke notched a game-tying solo home run for his second of the doubleheader and his third of the series.

In the top of the seventh, Garden City brought nine batters to the plate and tallied three hits, including Sean Togher and freshman Aiden Wilson both smacking two-run home runs to center field to vault the Broncbusters in front, 8-4.

In the defeat, Cloud County tallied four runs on three hits. Budke added a base hit, while Gunn had a three RBI bases-clearing double in the bottom of the first inning.

Garden City scored four unanswered runs - two in the third, one in the fourth and one in the sixth - before Budke's game-tying home run in the bottom of the sixth. The Broncbusters scored all four of their runs with two outs.

Cloud County starter Kai Rempel was tagged for three runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts through four innings. Sophomore Ben Soke pitched a scoreless fifth. Freshman Jacob McAdams gave up one run on one hit while walking two in two-thirds of an inning. Sophomore Sam Brummund suffered the loss after allowing three runs on one hit while walking one in a third of an inning of work. Bogart returned in game two, giving up a two-run home run in the seventh, while freshman Jackson Fox struck out three after giving up a hit and a walk in one inning pitched.

The T-Birds will look to regroup when they travel to Beatrice, Nebraska to face the Southeast Community College Bobcats in non-conference play on Tuesday, March 17. First pitch is set for 2 pm at Christenson Baseball Field.