Cloud County Baseball Opens Series with Doubleheader Sweep of Barton Community College

Getting seven innings of work from both of their starting pitchers, the Cloud County Community College baseball team came up with timely hits to jump out to early leads and come away with a home doubleheader sweep of Barton Community College with a 7-0 and 7-2 win at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Thursday, April 11th.

Keeping pace for second place in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division with the sweep, Cloud County improves to 28-12 overall and 14-4 in the KJCCC West while Barton continues their recent conference slide having lost seven of their last eight games in the Jayhawk West to fall to 28-13 overall and 13-9 in conference play. Dating back to last season's doubleheader sweep against the Cougars, Cloud County has now won four straight against BCC for the first time since the 2013 season.

Game One:
With two of the top three pitchers in the KJCCC in earned run average coming into Thursday, jumping out to an early lead proved crucial as the T-Birds erased a one-out single in the top of the first by throwing out a runner attempting to steal second before using back-to-back singles from Paul Schuyler and Demitri Shakotko to set up a Noah Konings RBI sacrifice fly to push across the first run of the game and grab a 1-0 lead. Two strikeouts to begin the top of the second were followed by a fielding error and double to give the Cougars a two-out threat before an inning-ending groundout as CCCC took advantage of two-straight doubles to begin the bottom of the second and added to their lead with a Cam MaCleod RBI double. Continuing the inning with a bunt single from Austin Coyle that brought home another run on a throwing error by the Barton catcher, Cloud County went on to push across one more unearned run with a groundout on a sacrifice bunt from Schuyler to finish off a three-run inning to make it a 4-0 game heading to the third.

Four runs of support offensively for T-Bird starting pitcher Kevin Mannell was plenty to work with for the redshirt sophomore who had given up just six runs in 39 innings prior to Thursday's start as the Topeka, Kansas native faced the minimum in the third and worked around a one-out walk and two-out single in the fourth to keep the Cougars off the scoreboard with a strikeout to end the inning and keep momentum in the CCCC dugout. Things remained a 4-0 game in favor of the T-Birds into the sixth as Mannell worked a second-straight one-two-three inning before getting three more runs of offensive support with one hit and two errors allowing Nolan Freund, Meyer, and MaCleod to score and put Cloud County up 7-0. Entering the final inning with a pitch count in the low 80s, Mannell came back out to finish what he started to finish off his first complete game of the year in shutout fashion by allowing a two-out hit before getting a game-ending groundout.

Entering the day fourth in the KJCCC in strikeouts, Mannell needed 99 pitches to throw his complete game with seven strikeouts while scattering five Barton hits and never allowing more than one hit in any inning. Offensively, it was Shakotko and Meyer leading the way with two hits each while Schuyler, Konings, MaCleod, and Coyle each drove in one run with the T-Birds striking out only once and seeing two of their eight hits go for extra bases.

Game Two:
Despite not being able to replicate the early run support in game two by being held scoreless through the first two innings of play, Cloud County still found a way to jump out to a lead in the bottom of the third as both MaCleod and Coyle opened the inning with back-to-back singles before a sacrifice bunt from Roy and Schuyler RBI bunt single to put CCCC on the board. Following a wild pitch that allowed Coyle to score from third, Schuyler worked his way into scoring position with a stolen base before seeing the inning end with a fielder's choice. The 2-0 T-Bird lead was cut in half in the top of the fourth as a leadoff double for Barton led to an RBI groundout two batters later to give BCC their first run of the day before putting down CCCC in order in their end of the inning to send things to the fifth with Cloud County holding a 2-1 lead.

A one-two-three inning defensively for the T-Birds in the top of the fifth allowed Cloud County to get back to the plate where a Roy one-out single and advancement on a wild pitch was followed by a single by Schuyler just over the Cougar second baseman and sacrifice fly from Shakotko to get the run back for CCCC to go up 3-1. Things remained a two-run contest into the bottom of the seventh as both starting pitchers started their respective ends of the inning with Cloud County starter TJ Coats helping his own cause in the bottom of the seventh by blasting his first home run of the year over the right-center field fence. After seeing the first pitch of his at-bat miss off the plate for a ball and be followed by a mound visit from the Barton coaching staff, MaCleod got a pitch he was sitting on and followed with a solo home run of his own in a nearly identical spot over the right-center field fence to end the day of BCC's Aidan Sowers with the T-Bird lead now sitting at 5-1. The inning wasn't done offensively for CCCC as a one-out rally started with Roy reaching on a wild pitch on a strikeout followed by Schuyler's fourth hit of the contest with a single into right field followed by an RBI double from Shakotko. A four-run inning was finished off one batter later with Konings hitting a sacrifice fly as what started as a 3-1 lead grew to a massive 7-1 advantage heading into the top of the eighth.

Turning to the bullpen for the first time on the day with Myles Chamberlain coming on in relief, Cloud County worked around back-to-back base runners reaching base for the Cougars by inducing two flyouts and a lineout with Barton scoring one run on a sacrifice fly to make it a 7-2 game. Unable to add to their lead in their final at-bat of the afternoon, CCCC sent Caden Walker out to the mound for the ninth as the Topeka, Kansas native struck out two of the first four batters he faced before getting a game-ending flyout to Konings in right to work a scoreless inning on 21 pitches.

Following up their eight hits in game one with 13 hits in game two, Cloud County was led with a four-hit game by Schuyler for his second four-hit game of the season and just the sixth game this year by a T-Bird with four hits. Shakotko was the lone player in the contest to drive in multiple runs despite going one-for-three at the plate while Roy and MaCleod each had two hits with eight different players for Cloud County recording at least one hit.

On the mound, Coats threw 111 pitches and struck out six while allowing one run on seven hits before turning things over to Chamberlain who allowed one run on one hit in his lone inning of work. Walker made his eighth appearance on the mound this season and had his fifth scoreless outing to go along with two strikeouts to run his season total of 10 strikeouts in 9.2 innings this year.

What's Next?
Cloud County will go for a series win against Barton for the first time since taking three of four games from the Cougars during the 2019 season as CCCC will go for their first win in Great Bend since April 14, 2019, when they head to Lawson-Biggs Field for a 1 PM doubleheader. Barton is 15-4 on their home field this season, but have three of their last four home games with all four home losses coming against conference foes.