Cloud County Baseball Team Drops NJCAA Region 6 Plains District Baseball Tournament Game to Kansas City Kansas, 8-5
The Cloud County Community College baseball team battled but lost an NJCAA Region 6 Plains District Baseball Tournament game against Kansas City Kansas Community College, 8-5, on Tuesday, May 13, at Dean Evans Stadium in Salina, Kansas.
The T-Birds will play the Fort Scott Greyhounds in an elimination game at 10 am on Wednesday, May 14. Fort Scott suffered a 13-0 defeat in five innings to Johnson County Community College. The game will be broadcast on 1390/98.3 KNCK Radio, with Austin McNorton and TJ Segebart on the call. Click here to listen live with the Thunder Pregame Show beginning at 9:50.
The matchup will be the first between the T-Birds and Greyhounds since February 14, 2022, when Cloud County swept a doubleheader in Fort Scott by final scores of 13-5 and 8-0. The T-Birds have won three straight against Fort Scott and six of the last ten meetings between the two clubs.
Cloud County has dropped to 44-16 overall after suffering its sixth straight postseason loss to the Kansas City Kansas Blue Devils. The T-Birds had their chances after they outhit Kansas City, Kansas, 13-10, but they left ten runners on base in the game.
The Blue Devils scored first on a two-out solo home run by redshirt freshman Braden Horn in the top of the second inning.
Cloud County answered in the bottom half of the second frame when freshman Kaden Budke doubled to right-center field to score sophomore Noah Konings, tying the game at 1-1.
The game remained knotted up until the fifth inning. Kansas City, Kansas, loaded the bases in the top half of the inning. A squeeze play by sophomore Marcus Dierks scored freshman Carter Towns, allowing the Blue Devils to pull back in front at 2-1.
The T-Birds once again responded. After freshman Vasya Seymour reached on a one-out infield single, sophomore Austin Coyle brought him home on an RBI ground out to tie the game again at 2-all entering the sixth inning.
Kansas City, Kansas scored four unanswered runs, beginning in the top of the sixth inning with a lead-off solo homer from sophomore Freddie Nolen IV. An infield throwing error on the part of Cloud County allowed Dierks to score in the top of the eighth inning. Horn then blasted his second home run of the game in the eighth on a two-run shot to left field, scoring freshman Ian Woita, to extend their lead to 6-2.
Cloud County managed to get a run back in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI base-hit by Konings.
Sophomore Tanner Pachorek capped the scoring for Kansas City Kansas on a two-run home run to left-center field in the top of the ninth, marking the team's fourth home run of the ballgame.
The T-Birds attempted to make things interesting late. Sophomore Austin Coyle drilled a one-out solo home run to left field for his eighth long ball of the season. Redshirt freshman Matthew Evans followed with a double to left-center field. Sophomore Nolan Freund added a single to right field to put runners on the corners. Konings then singled through the infield to score Evans to make it a 12-5 ballgame.
But the T-Birds couldn't tack on any more runs.
Freshman right-hander Cole Linton took the loss for Cloud County. The Goodland, Kansas native went seven innings, giving up three earned runs on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.
On offense, the T-Birds finished with 13 hits. Konings went 3-for-5 with one run scored and two RBI. Freund also went 3-for-5 with one run scored. Coyle and Marino both had two-hit games, while Budke and Evans each had doubles for Cloud County.