Cloud County Baseball Sweeps Home Doubleheader Against Garden City Community College

Breaking out the bats to finish with 30 hits and 23 runs in 13 innings of play, the Cloud County Community College baseball team had little trouble with a home doubleheader against Garden City Community College by winning 10-0 in six innings and 13-2 in seven innings to sweep the day at Lee Doyen Field on Wednesday, April 24th.

Improving to 34-16 overall, Cloud County takes sole possession of second place in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division with an 18-8 conference record while Garden City drops to 6-39 overall and 2-24 in the KJCCC West.

Game One:
Scoring in each of the first four innings and five of the six innings played in the game, the T-Birds plated one run in the bottom of the first with a two-out Demitri Shakotko single coming around to score on an RBI single from TJ Coats before pushing across three runs on three hits in the bottom of the second with a Paul Schuyler two-RBI double down the left field line breaking the game open to make it 3-0 in favor of CCCC. An RBI groundout from Gavin Roy one batter later capped off the three-run inning as Cloud County went on to score one run in the third with Nolan Freund roping a double down the left field line to score Coats and make it 5-0 in favor of the T-Birds heading into the fourth.

The big inning of game one offensively came in the bottom of the fourth as CCCC had each of the first four batters of the inning reach base with Landon Meyer hitting a leadoff single and followed by a Schuyler walk and Roy RBI single up the middle. Following a double steal from both Schuyler and Roy, Shakotko drove home both runs on base hit into center field to force a Garden City pitching change followed by an RBI single from Noah Konings three batters later to cap off the inning that put Cloud County up 9-0.

Needing just one run in the bottom of the fifth to end the game early by mercy rule, the T-Birds were unable to turn a leadoff Cam MaCleod single into the game-ending run which forced things into the sixth where Garden City put their first runner of the game into scoring position with a two-out single and wild pitch before having the inning end on a groundout back to relief pitcher Caden Walker. CCCC saw Shakotko lead the bottom of the inning off with his third hit of the game to go along with a stolen base to get into scoring position as a two-out double from Konings put the official end to the game with Cloud County going up 10-0 to pick up the run-rule win.

Starting T-Bird pitcher Kevin Mannell looked as sharp as he typically is on the mound by going five innings and allowing two base runners on a hit batter and one hit while striking out five and picking up his seventh win of the year to improve to 7-1. Walker worked around the one hit he allowed in the sixth to strike out one in his 10th appearance of the year. Offensively, Shakotko had three hits, scored three times, and drove in two runs to lead CCCC as Schuyler, Roy, Shakotko, and Konings all drove in two runs each. Of the 13 hits recorded by Cloud County, three went for extra bases with the T-Birds adding seven stolen bases in the game.

Game Two:
The strong offensive display in the series opener was followed up with another big onslaught from the Cloud County bats in game two as CCCC took advantage of two fielding errors in the bottom of the first to plate a run before going on to put together a six-hit bottom of the third to plate four more runs to go up 5-0. In the bottom of the third, redshirt freshman Austin Coyle led the inning off with a solo home run to left center field followed by base-hit singles from Schuyler and Roy to go along with a Shakotko RBI double. After a groundout, Konings continued the inning with an RBI single to score Shakotko with four more batters coming to the plate as a total of 10 batters hit in the inning with CCCC stranding the bases loaded to end the inning.

Another big inning in the fourth saw Cloud County have another nine batters come to the plate with four more runs scoring on four hits with Shakotko hitting another RBI single before seeing RBI hits from both Jakob Poturnak and Konings keep the offensive display moving. The final run of the inning came home on a sacrifice fly from Cam MaCleod that put the T-Birds up 9-0 and in full control as things appeared destined to once again be ended early by mercy rule.

CCCC scored another two in the fifth with Poturnak and Coats recording RBI singles to put Cloud County up 11-0 with Garden City breaking through for their first run of the series in the top of the sixth with a leadoff single from Nick Barber coming around to score after two stolen bases that set up an RBI groundout. Still working with a 10-run advantage, the T-Birds were unable to add any insurance runs to their lead in the bottom of the sixth to keep things at an 11-1 advantage going to the seventh where the Broncbusters had the first three batters of the inning safely reach base with GCCC going on to score two runs in the inning to build a small bit of momentum and positivity on what had otherwise been a rough day on the diamond. Not wasting any time in trying to end the game in the bottom of the seventh, CCCC got back-to-back hits from Shakotko and Poturnak with the second hit coming in the form of an RBI triple to put the game-ending run at third base with nobody out. Easton Norris followed by drawing a walk and taking second while seeing Kolby Girrens hit a walk-off single into shallow center field to end the game.

Nine different players for Cloud County had hits in the game including three-hit games from Shakotko, Poturnak, and Konings as the trio scored seven times and drove in seven runs in 14 at-bats. Despite the 13 runs on 17 hits, CCCC stranded eight base runners and were limited to just three extra-base hits with two more stolen bases giving Cloud County nine on the day. Four pitchers saw time on the mound for the T-Birds with Coats picking up his seventh win of the year after a five-inning outing that came with nine strikeouts and just two hits allowed. Also seeing time were Ethan Price (one inning), Eric Bradicich (0.2 innings), and Cohen Evans (0.1 innings) with the final three combining to strike out two.

What's Next?
The final four road games of the regular season begins off the final six-game stretch for the T-Birds as CCCC heads west to Garden City to close out their four-game series with the Broncbusters with a 1 PM doubleheader on Friday, April 26th. Cloud County has won eight consecutive games at Williams Stadium in Garden City dating back to the 2019 season as the T-Birds have won the last 10 in the series and 15 of the last 16 over GCCC.