Cloud County Baseball Drops Opening Two Games of Weekend Series Against Butler

The first of back-to-back days with doubleheaders to close out the 2024 regular season, the Cloud County Community College baseball team lack of early run support dig deficits that could never be recovered from as host Butler Community College took a pair of games by scores of 5-3 and 11-5 at McDonald Stadium in El Dorado, Kansas on Friday, May 3rd.

For just the second time this season, Cloud County drops both ends of a doubleheader to fall to 36-18 overall and 20-10 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division. Butler secures a home playoff series in next week's NJCAA Region VI playoffs with the wins, improving to 30-23 overall and 19-11 in the KJCCC West.  

Game One:
While scoring in the first inning and scoring first in the contest has typically been a sign of good things for the T-Birds throughout the year with a 29-6 record entering the game when scoring first, such was not the case in the series opener as a Gavin Roy double and Demitri Shakotko RBI single put CCCC up 1-0 as part of the only run to score through the first two innings of play. After working around a two-out base runner in the bottom of the first and a pair of two-out base runners in the second, Cloud County was unable to maintain their lead in the bottom of the third as the Grizzlies used a hit batter and walk with one out to put two runners aboard with a passed ball on a potential inning-ending strikeout keeping the inning alive for BCC. A walk to the next batter brought home the game-tying run as Butler managed to even things in the inning despite being held hitless as the passed ball loomed large with an unearned run coming home for the Grizzlies.

Three-straight strikeouts followed a leadoff single from Noah Konings in the top of the fourth before seeing Butler put three of their first four batters safely aboard in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead on a two-RBI single that knocked CCCC starter Kevin Mannell from the contest as the T-Birds were looking to limit the damage to just the two runs. The Grizzlies had other ideas, however, as three-straight two-out base hits brought home another two runs for BCC to push the lead for Butler out to a 5-1 advantage. Another leadoff base hit for Cloud County went to waste in the top of the fifth before seeing the T-Birds retired in order in the top of the sixth as the 5-1 lead for the Grizzlies was maintained heading into the top of the seventh. Needing to put together a final-inning rally to try and extend the game into the bottom of the seventh, CCCC got a leadoff single from T.J. Coats and a walk from Easton Mould followed by a flyout and strikeout to bring Cloud County down to their final out. Extending the game with a base-hit single was Roy followed by a Demitri Shakotko two-RBI single to bring the T-Birds within two with the game-tying run on base but was followed by a game-ending strikeout.

The difference in the game proved to be free base runners as Cloud County outhit Butler 9-7 but was hurt by six walks and two hit batters issued to the Grizzlies while drawing just one walk of their own with BCC stranding 11 base runners compared to seven for CCCC. Roy, Shakotko, and Coats all had two hits each with Shakotko driving in all three runs for the T-Birds with Roy and pinch-runners Gannon White and Easton Mould each scoring once.

Game Two:
A shaky start from CCCC in game two saw Butler jump out to a 3-0 lead after one inning of play with a walk and a runner reaching on a fielding error both coming around to score in the inning as two of the three BCC runs were unearned. After getting one run back with a two-out rally started by an infield single by Coats who came around to score on a Cam MaCleod RBI single, Cloud County saw Butler respond with two more runs as two hits and two more free base runners allowing for another crooked number to be put up.

The 5-1 advantage for the Grizzlies remained intact until the bottom of the fourth when Butler struck again with a leadoff base runner reaching on a wild pitch on a third strike to go along with an error on a fielder's choice extending the inning to allow yet another unearned run to score. Just like the second inning, the T-Birds were able to get a run back with Shakotko driving in his fourth RBI of the day on a sacrifice fly to bring home Paul Schuyler who had reached earlier in the inning on a throwing error with the score 6-2 in favor of BCC heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Unfortunately for CCCC, Four straight batters reached base safely to begin the bottom of the inning as Butler plated three more runs on two hits and stranded one runner to grow their lead to 9-2 with another threat in the bottom of the seventh putting the T-Birds on the verge of having the game end early due to mercy rule with BCC pushing across two more runs and stranding the game-ending run at third. Still with a chance to try and get back into the game, Cloud County had Shakotko hit a leadoff double followed by a pinch-hit Justin Johnson RBI double to bring home a run and start a rally for the T-Birds with Landon Meyer and Austin Coyle both hitting sacrifice flies as part of a three-run inning. A key opportunity to make a real push at putting pressure on the BCC defense was thwarted however as a groundout with two-hole hitter Roy at the plate left the bases loaded to allow Butler to maintain a six-run lead. Following a one-two-three bottom of the eighth, Cloud County once again found themselves in a situation where a big rally was needed in the final inning to try and extend the game. A one-out base runner in the form of a Johnson hit-by-pitch was all that CCCC could muster as a flyout, strikeout, and groundout proved to end the game with no real threat being posed to try and force an extension of the game.

Another nine walks being issued by the Cloud County pitching staff told the story of the day along with two T-Bird errors leading to three unearned runs for the Grizzlies as both Butler and CCCC finished the game with nine hits each. The nine hits for the T-Birds came off the bats of nine different players with five different players for CCCC (Shakotko, Johnson, Meyer, MaCleod, and Coyle) each driving in one run.

What's Next?
A quick turnaround for both the T-Birds and Grizzlies will see Cloud County host games three and four of the final KJCCC West series of the year for both teams with a 1 PM start time at Lee Doyen Field on Saturday, May 4th. The doubleheader will serve as sophomore day for Cloud County as well as alumni weekend with all baseball alumni invited back to take part in a pre-game tailgate in the parking lot of the Concordia Sports Complex beginning at 12 PM. CCCC still needs one win to secure the number two seed in the KJCCC West Division with the two through four seeds still to be determined in the Jayhawk West.