Cloud County Baseball Drops Mid-Week Contest to #5 Iowa Western

Playing the first of two mid-week contests with number-five nationally ranked Iowa Western Community College, the Cloud County Community College baseball team was limited to three hits while falling into a 4-0 hole that led to a 6-2 home defeat at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Tuesday, March 12th.

Having a four-game winning streak snapped, Cloud County falls to 15-7 overall with the defeat while the Reivers pick up an eighth straight win to improve to 17-4 overall.

A quick-moving first inning saw both teams send the minimum to the plate with T-Bird starting pitcher Caden Walker needing just eight pitches to get out of the inning before seeing CCCC draw a leadoff walk that was erased on a double play to keep things scoreless heading into the second. After a one-out hit batter and a stolen base for IWCC in the top of the second, Reiver first baseman Evan Saunders put Iowa Western on the board with a towering two-run home run before seeing the inning end on the base paths with an attempt to steal home getting thrown out by walker to limit the damage. Another double play for Cloud County offensively in the bottom of the inning erased a one-out swinging bunt by Jakob Poturnak as CCCC sent the minimum to the plate through three innings with IWCC adding one more run in the third with a leadoff walk scoring on an RBI single.

The Reivers struck again in the top of the fourth with a one-out walk and infield single putting two runners on for a two-RBI double down the left field line just past the outstretched effort of Poturnak at third base with IWCC taking their largest lead of the game at 5-0 heading into the bottom of the inning. Another quiet offensive inning for CCCC saw the T-Birds draw a hit-by-pitch with Roy getting to first before having the inning end on a strikeout as Iowa Western Starter Noah Scott finished off a four-inning outing that came with five strikeouts.

After keeping IWCC off the scoreboard in the fifth, Cloud County used the momentum in the bottom of the inning as a pair of one-out walks set up a two-RBI double from nine-hole hitter Dawson Feil to bring the T-Birds back within three at 5-2 while forcing another Reiver pitching change. Things remained a 5-2 contest through both the sixth and seventh innings as Iowa Western and Cloud County sent a total of 13 batters to the plate in the inning with a walk for the Reivers being the only base runner across the two innings.

One final run for Iowa Western was scored in the top of the eighth as a leadoff single and fielding error on a fielder's choice put two runners on for IWCC with no outs before a walk to load the bases with a base hit single bringing home an unearned Reiver run. Limiting the damage on the mound, Jackson Cross worked out of the bases-loaded jam by getting a strikeout followed by an infield popup and unassisted groundout to end the inning with three of Iowa Western's seven stranded runners coming in the inning. Despite keeping IWCC to just one run to remain within four in the bottom of the eighth, Cloud County could not get anything going offensively down the stretch as the T-Birds were retired in order in the bottom of the eighth and only mustered a one-out single in the ninth to drop the first battle of the season with the Reivers.

Iowa Western outhit CCCC 7-3 in the contest and drew five of the eight walks with neither team putting up much offense compared to their season averages while combining for a .167 (10-for-60) batting average. Saunders was the only player in the game to record multiple hits while also driving in two runs alongside Easton Mains with Feil also bringing home two runs for Cloud County. A total of 14 pitchers were used in the game including eight by the T-Birds as no hurler tossed more than 47 total pitches in the game. The longest outing for CCCC was two innings by Walker who fell to 0-1 on the year after allowing two runs on one hit with two strikeouts while Hayden Malaise struck out two in 1.1 innings of work.

What's Next?
Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play resumes on Thursday, March 14th when Cloud County heads to Pratt to take on an 11-12 Beaver squad in a 1 PM doubleheader. Pratt has dropped their past six games dating back to March 3rd and opened KJCCC West play last weekend against Dodge City by dropping all four games to the Conquistadors.