Cloud County Softball Splits Sophomore Day Contests with Coffeyville

Honoring five sophomores who played in two of their final home games of their career on Saturday, the Cloud County Community College softball team bounced back from a 7-0 defeat to Coffeyville Community College to win game two by a score of 10-5 and split a doubleheader at the CCCC Softball Field in Concordia, Kansas on April 20th.

The game two victory allows Cloud County to improve to 16-20 overall and 2-12 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Coffeyville moves to 6-22 overall and 5-9 in the KJCCC.

Game One:
Early missed opportunities for the T-Birds in the opening game of the doubleheader saw CCCC retire Coffeyville in order in the top of the first before being unable to do anything with two hits in the bottom of the first to see the score remained tied until the top of the second when the Red Ravens used an RBI double to bring home the first run of the game. The Coffeyville lead grew in the top of the third with three runs coming around to score on three hits and one error as the deficit for Cloud County grew to 4-0 and eventually 7-0 following another three-run inning by the Red Ravens in the top of the fourth.

Following the two-hit bottom of the first where CCCC was held scoreless, the T-Birds were limited to just one base runner on a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third over the course of the next five innings with the offense having been held in check. Still trailing by seven runs heading into the bottom of the seventh, Cloud County recorded their first hit since the bottom of the first with a Kaylee Pinneo leadoff double but saw the next three batters retired in order to end the game.

Outhit 11-3 in the game and striking out eight times at the plate, Cloud County got two hits from Pinneo and one hit from Kaitlynn Baca as the T-Birds had just four total base runners in the game. For Coffeyville, starting pitcher Justina Raye went the distance and needed just 94 pitches while striking out eight and facing just three batters over the minimum in the contest.

Game Two:
Flipping the offensive switch in the second game of the afternoon, Cloud County saw Coffeyville push across two runs in the top of the first before plating four runs of their own in the bottom of the first as the first four batters of the inning safely reached base to force a Red Raven pitching change with three hits and a walk all coming around to score in the inning. Working around a leadoff single in the top of the second, CCCC added another three runs on two hits and two errors by Coffeyville in the bottom of the second with two of the three runs being unearned to allow Cloud County to take a commanding 7-2 lead.

Following a scoreless third inning, Coffeyville managed to push a run across in the top of the fourth with a leadoff double scoring on an RBI groundout to bring the score to 7-3 momentarily as the T-Birds responded by putting together another three-run inning with three hits and another Red Raven error giving Cloud County their largest lead of the game. Another solo run for Coffeyville in the fifth looked to keep the Red Ravens in the game going into the late innings with CCCC unable to do anything with a leadoff base runner reaching on an error as the next three half-innings all went scoreless to keep the T-Bird advantage at six heading into the top of the seventh. With Coffeyville down to their final three outs of the game, Cloud County gave up back-to-back singles to begin the inning before trading two outs for a run to come across on a sacrifice fly as a flyout into right field ended a potential Red Raven Rally to give CCCC the win.

Taking advantage of four Coffeyville errors, the T-Birds used a three-hit game from Baca along with three runs being scored as the top two players in the lineup (Baca, Brooklynn McCormick) scored six of Cloud County's 10 runs in the game. Camille Stauffer had a team-high two RBI and scored once with seven different players for CCCC recording at least one hit. Freshman Paige Mahler threw a complete game in the circle, allowing five runs (four earned) on 10 hits while striking out three.

What's Next?
The final two-week stretch of the regular season begins for Cloud County with a home doubleheader against Fort Scott Community College beginning at 2 PM from the CCCC Softball Field on Thursday, April 25th. Fort Scott is 27-15 overall and holds a 10-4 mark in the KJCCC with two home wins over Hesston on Saturday as the Greyhounds will play at Oklahoma Wesleyan University JV on Monday before their trip to Concordia.