Cloud County Baseball Drops Final Two Games of Series to #17 Hutchinson

Looking to follow up a Friday split and continue momentum into the final two weeks of the regular season, the Cloud County Community College baseball team was unable to find a win in either game of a road doubleheader at number 17-ranked Hutchinson Community College by falling 10-0 and 6-3 at Hobart-Detter Field in Hutchinson, Kansas on Sunday, April 21st.

Falling to 32-16 overall and 16-8 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West, Cloud County drops their first conference series of the year to the Blue Dragons who improve to 39-10 overall and 24-4 in the KJCCC West to go along with clinching at least a share of the KJCCC West Division Title.

Game One:
Coming off a come-from-behind walk-off win in game two on Friday to even the series at 1-1, The T-Birds faced a 1-0 hole after one inning of play as the conference leader in stolen bases Kael Babin reached on a leadoff walk and came around to score by stealing home to put the Blue Dragons on the scoreboard. Following a Jakob Poturnak single to left center field and Nolan Freund walk, CCCC was retired in order to end the top of the second with three straight strikeouts to end the threat with both starting pitchers beginning to settle in with 16 consecutive batters retired. A two-RBI single for the Blue Dragons doubled the HCC lead to 4-0 and was followed by a hit batter and another bases-loaded two-RBI single as the lead grew again with Hutchinson going on to score five runs on five hits to go up 7-0.

Getting into the Blue Dragon bullpen to begin the top of the sixth ultimately proved not help Cloud County's cause as a two-out Demitri Shakotko double was stranded with Poturnak flying out to right field to end the inning. Matching their start to the bottom of the fifth, Hutchinson saw each of their first two batters reach base in the sixth and had four of their first five batters safely reach to plate a run on a CCCC error three runs coming across to score including the game-ending run on an RBI single by Blake Bradford.

Held to just two hits in the game, Cloud County stranded four base runners and struck out seven times to be held to a season-low in hits and just the fifth time with fewer than five hits. Hutchinson meanwhile pounded out 12 hits and stranded just three base runners with four players having multi-hit games.

Game Two:
Facing the same situation they faced on Friday in needing a win in game two of the day to force a doubleheader split, Cloud County did not waste any time in getting out to an early lead as Landon Meyer blasted a leadoff home run to get the T-Birds on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. The CCCC lead grew again in the top of the second with a Cam MaCleod two-out double coming around to score on a fielding error one batter later followed by a solo home run for Jakob Poturnak in the top of the third to put Cloud County up 3-0. T-Bird starting pitcher John Klus took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fourth when a one-out base hit for the Blue Dragons started a rally that led to five hits turning into a six-run inning as two errors by CCCC proving costly in the inning.

With momentum having flipped back over into the Blue Dragon dugout, Cloud County was set down in order in the fifth and limited to just a one-out single in the sixth as both teams were unable to add to their offensive totals heading into the seventh. Just one hit was recorded in the seventh inning followed by a quick top of the eighth by the T-Birds as HCC remained out in front with their three-run lead that proved to be enough to hang on for the win with nine of the final batters for Cloud County being retired in order.

The home run by Poturnak in the third was the fourth of the series for the Manilla, Philippines native while seeing MaCleod finish as the lone T-Bird to have a multi-hit game on Sunday by going two-for-four with a run scored in the series finale. Strikeouts again proved to be a problem offensively as CCCC was held to a .176 batting average in the game with 11 strikeouts and five stranded base runners.

Breaking the stretch of retired batters was Hutchinson's Cody Gunderson with a one-out single in the bottom of the fourth to begin what became a three-hit inning to allow HCC to add to their lead with an RBI single as the Blue Dragons went up 2-0 going into the top of the fifth. Another leadoff base runner for CCCC coming in the form of a TJ Coats walk was stranded with the next three players for Cloud County going down in order before seeing Hutchinson put their first two batters of the bottom of the fifth safely aboard followed by an infield fly on a bunt and single to load the bases with one out.

What's Next?
Cloud County will go from playing the top team in the KJCCC West Division to the team at the bottom of the conference standings as CCCC will open a four-game series with Garden City Community College at home with a 1 PM doubleheader at Lee Doyen Field on Thursday, April 25th. Garden City took one of four games from Dodge City this past weekend to move to 6-37 overall and 2-22 in the KJCCC with eight games remaining in the regular season.