Cloud County Baseball Continues Hot Streak, Finishes Off Four-Game Sweep of Garden City
Following up a Thursday home sweep while continuing their recent hot streak, the Cloud County Community College baseball team would finish off a four-game sweep of Garden City Community College with wins by scores of 10-5 and 17-5 at Williams Stadium in Garden City, Kansas on Saturday, April 15th.
Winners of nine of their last 10 games, Cloud County improves to 26-15 overall and 13-7 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while Garden City falls to 7-37 overall and 3-21 in the KJCCC.
GAME ONE:
Battling a cold front moving through the area and strong winds out of the north, the T-Birds would not waste much time getting on the scoreboard in the opening game of the day as a Paul Schuyler leadoff single in the top of the first would be followed by a Demitri Shakotko two-run home run to give CCCC a 2-0 lead. Things would remain a 2-0 game in favor of the T-Birds until the bottom of the third when the Broncbusters would string together back-to-back extra-base hits to begin the inning to push across a run before a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2.
Cloud County would reclaim the lead in the top of the fourth as Gavin Roy would lead off the inning with a single before coming around to score on a Kolden Howerton triple as CCCC would send 11 players to the plate and score seven runs on four hits and two errors. Shakotko would be the one to deliver the biggest hit of the inning by going deep for the second time in the game with a three-run home run to bring home Schuyler and Karson Green as the lead would grow to 9-2 in favor of the T-Birds.
After giving single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings to GCCC to see their lead cut down to 9-4, CCCC would pick one run back up in the top of the sixth as Danny Infante would draw a one-out walk and work his way around the bases on two balks and a wild pitch to make things a 10-4 game. Garden City would match the run by T-Birds in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff triple and RBI groundout in what would ultimately be the final run of the game as both teams would be unable to record a hit in the seventh.
Carried by the top four batters in the lineup, Cloud County would see Schuyler and Shakotko combine for four of the eight hits in the game by the T-Birds with Infante and Anthony Taggart also adding a hit each and combining to score three runs. Shakotko would finish the game with five RBI while scoring twice while accounting for two of CCCC's three extra-base hits with Howerton recording the other hit to go for extra bases by Cloud County.
Three total pitchers would see action for the T-Birds in the game with sophomore Jack Mount picking up his fourth victory of the year after striking out four in five innings of work and allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits. Blayne Fritcher and Scott Rienguette would each throw an inning to finish things off, with Rienguette striking out two of the three batters he faced.
GAME TWO:
Taking advantage of a one-out single and walk to set up a pair of runs coming home on a Garden City error, the T-Birds would lead 2-0 once again after an inning of play before seeing GCCC pick a run back up in the bottom of the second after three T-Bird errors that would extend the inning for the Broncbusters on two different occasions. CCCC would be unable to make anything out of a two-out single from Howerton in the third before seeing Garden City take their first lead of the afternoon in the bottom of the inning as a leadoff walk would lead to a game-tying RBI triple followed by a go-ahead two-run home run to put Cloud County in a 4-2 hole.
Responding with a rally of their own, CCCC would score four runs in the top of the fourth thanks in part to Shakotko's third home run of the afternoon with a three-run blast with two outs in the inning as the T-Bird offense managed to produce once again to make it a 6-4 game. Cloud County would then work around a leadoff walk and one-out single by the Broncbusters to strand two runners with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning before adding to their lead with a Schuyler RBI single and Infante RBI single to plate two runs on three hits to double up GCCC by an 8-4 score.
The game would be broken open by Cloud County in the top of the sixth as a leadoff triple for Shakotko would set the tone for the rest of the inning and see CCCC send 11 batters to the plate with three hits, two hit batters, and three walks leading to five more runs for the T-Birds to go up 13-4. Turning things over to the bullpen and a nine-run advantage to work with, Cloud County would see Garden City take advantage of the fourth T-Bird error of the game to score a run before picking up a run of their own with an RBI groundout by Roy to score Schuyler.
The final inning and a half would see CCCC tack on three more runs with three consecutive one-out walks in the top of the ninth to bring home two runs on an Aidan Malish two-RBI single and cap off a 17-run game while keeping the Broncbusters off the scoreboard in the bottom of the ninth to officially finish off their eighth consecutive victory against Garden City.
Driving in another game-high three RBI to finish the day with eight runs driven in on five hits, Shakotko would once again be a key piece to the T-Bird offense while being joined by Roy who would go three-for-four in the game in addition to matching Shakotko's three RBI output. Nine different players would record at least one hit each as part of a 14-hit performance for the T-Birds who would also draw 10 walks and six hit batters to have base runners reach in eight of their nine innings offensively.
Throwing the first five innings of the game to pick up the victory would be starter Cayden Castellanos who would strike out five of the 25 batters he faced while allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits. Brady Stuewe would toss two innings and allow one run while striking out five before seeing John Green and Cole Askew bring things home with a strikeout each in their one-inning outings to give the T-Bird pitching staff 12 total strikeouts in the game.
What's Next?
Cloud County will play six of their next nine games at home beginning with a 2 PM non-conference doubleheader on Monday, April 17th against the Kansas Wesleyan University JV team. The T-Birds and Coyotes met back on February 13th for CCCC's season opening doubleheader with Cloud County winning 11-0 and 11-2.