Cloud County Baseball Finishes Off Four-Game Sweep of Colby with Two Road Wins on Sunday
Offensive surges in the middle innings of both games for the Cloud County Community College baseball team proved to be the difference on Sunday afternoon as early leads allowed for a road sweep of Colby Community College to finish off a four-game series sweep at Young Memorial Field in Colby, Kansas on March 10th.
Earning their second four-game series sweep of the year, Cloud County improves to 15-6 overall and finishes the opening weekend of Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division play with a 4-0 record while the Trojans fall to 1-15 overall, and 0-4 in the KJCCC West.
Game One:
Scoring first with a leadoff home run off the bat of sophomore Paul Schuyler, CCCC traded first-inning runs with Colby as the Trojans managed to turn a leadoff walk into a run on a two-out RBI single before stranding two runners to end the inning. Cloud County didn't waste any time in getting back out to a lead as a Jakob Poturnak single and Cam MaCleod double allowed two of the first three batters in the second to safely reach base with a wild pitch and Gavin Roy RBI single bringing home a pair of runs before a Demitri Shakotko two-out, two-RBI double to finish off a four-run inning for the T-Birds.
The 5-1 lead for Cloud County grew to 6-1 in the top of the third as Noah Konings drew a leadoff walk and came around to score on a MaCleod sacrifice fly after an error by Colby defensively extended the inning and allowed the unearned run to come across. Another single run by CCCC in the fourth came on a solo home run from Nolan Freund before seeing Colby answer with a single run of their own on a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fourth as Cloud County took a 7-2 lead into the top of the fifth.
Breaking things open again with another big inning, the T-Birds pushed across another four runs in the fifth after Colby made a pitching change with a call to the bullpen as four straight walks to begin the inning brought home a run and forced another Trojan pitching change with the bases loaded. Following a Schuyler sacrifice fly and Roy fielder's choice to put two outs on the board, Shakotko delivered once again with a two-RBI double to bring home Roy and MaCleod as CCCC took a commanding 11-2 lead. Things remained a nine-run advantage for the T-Birds until the bottom of the sixth as Colby used a leadoff home run to put together a four-run inning with an RBI double and two-run home run coming later in the inning to cut into the CCCC lead and get back within five at 11-6. After being retired in order in the top of the seventh, Cloud County never allowed Colby to put together another late rally as a one-out walk was all that the Trojans could muster with a flyout and groundout ending the game without any serious threat being posed.
Earning his team-leading fourth win of the season on the mound, Jack Macintosh improved to 4-1 after throwing five innings and allowing two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts to the 24 batters he faced. Creighton Jacobitz and Cohen Evans each pitched one inning, with Evans throwing a scoreless seventh in his second appearance of the year while Jacobitz struck out two. Offensively, Shakotko had game-highs in both hits (three) and RBI (four) with two of his hits going for extra bases while five other T-Birds had one hit each. As a team, Cloud County drew six walks and had four players get hit by pitches for 10 free base runners while also taking advantage of a pair of Trojan errors.
Game Two:
Like game one, both CCCC and Colby each plated a run in their respective ends of the first inning with Cloud County bringing home a run on a Konings RBI single while the Trojans took advantage of a leadoff double and failed pickoff attempt to score on a sacrifice fly as the game remained tied through two innings of play. In the top of the third, a leadoff walk for Freund set up a Poturnak one-out double to put two runners in scoring position for TJ Coats to drive home a pair of runs on a base hit before coming around to score on an Austin Coyle RBI double. The three-run lead for Cloud County doubled to a six-run advantage in the fourth as a bases-loaded two-out double for MaCleod brought home Poturnak, Konings, and Freund to make it a 7-1 contest.
Colby started to cut into the T-Bird lead in the bottom of the fifth with a leadoff single scoring on a two-out RBI single before stranding a pair of runners with another run coming home in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double from Carter Roth. CCCC got the run surrendered in the sixth back in the top of the seventh as Coats drew a leadoff walk and came around to score three batters later on a Roy sacrifice fly as Cloud County threatened to add to their lead even more before an inning-ending double play to strand two base runners. The twin-killing defensively proved to be a spark for the host Trojans as Colby went on to send nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the seventh to score four runs on three hits and a T-Bird error to pull within two at 9-7.
With a chance to pad their lead in the top of the eighth, CCCC drew back-to-back walks to begin the inning to force a Colby pitching change with the Trojans managing to get out of the inning by inducing a flyout and back-to-back strikeouts with two stranded base runners keeping the deficit at two runs. Cloud County returned the favor in the bottom of the eighth by holding Colby to a one-out single that was stranded as the 9-7 score remained in place going to the ninth. Not taking any chances with the Trojans trying to rally again, CCCC saw three of their first four batters safely reach base in the top of the ninth with a wild pitch bringing home a run before seeing a fielding error on the Trojans give Cloud County an extra out that proved costly with four total runs scoring in the inning to make it a 13-7 game. Colby did what they could in their final opportunity at the plate with a pair of one-out singles giving the Trojans a chance to put together a big inning, but a fielder's choice and groundout put a quick end to any potential rally with the T-Birds getting their fifth scoreless inning of the game defensively to finish off their week with a perfect 4-0 record.
29 total stranded base runners saw Cloud County strand 14 runners despite getting 12 hits and drawing 13 walks with only three players (Freund, Konings, and Poturnak) having multi-hit games for CCCC (two each). MaCleod drove in a game-high three RBI for the T-Birds with the four through seven hole hitters driving in eight of the 13 runs scored by Cloud County to go along with nine different players recording at least one hit. On the mound, Tyler Elliot went five innings to start the game and earned the win to improve to 1-0 on the year after allowing two runs on six hits with four strikeouts before turning things over to Conlin Grady. Grady went 1.0 innings and struck out one before being relieved by Zach Sharshel who threw the final three innings of the contest after entering in a save situation and keeping the Trojans off the scoreboard by scattering four hits and striking out six.
What's Next?
Non-conference play resumes for Cloud County with a single, 2 PM home contest against number four nationally ranked Iowa Western Community College at Lee Doyen Field on Tuesday, March 12th. The Reivers are 14-4 overall after winning a home doubleheader over the Ottawa University JV team on Sunday afternoon. Through 18 games this season, IWCC is averaging 13 runs per game and has won four of their past six games by shutout.