Cloud County Baseball Finishes Off Sweep of Pratt with Two Shutout Victories

For the second-straight weekend, the Cloud County Community College baseball team finished off a four-game sweep of a Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference foe by taking down Pratt Community College by scores of 6-0 and 11-0 at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Saturday, March 16th.

Remaining unbeaten in the KJCCC West at 8-0, Cloud County is now 19-7 overall and has won nine of their last 11 games while keeping Pratt winless in conference with an 11-16 overall record and 0-8 mark in the Jayhawk West.

Game One:
Coming off a complete-game shutout win over the Beavers in game two on Thursday, CCCC didn't waste any time in getting on the board as a one-out triple from Gavin Roy in the bottom of the first came around to score on a swinging bunt from Nolan Freund to score the lone run of the first two innings of play to put the T-Birds up 1-0. Cloud County added to their lead in the bottom of the third with a leadoff single from Demitri Shakotko moving to second on a balk and eventually to third on a Freund flyout before scoring on a wild pitch to double the CCCC lead in what was proving to be a pitcher's duel with just five hits through three innings.

Getting a second-straight one-two-three inning capped off by a strikeout, Cloud County starter Jack MacIntosh really settled in as the game progressed with a stretch of 12 consecutive batters being retired in order before a leadoff single in the top of the sixth that was erased one batter later on a double-play to set up another quick inning on the mound. One final opportunity to add some insurance runs offensively for the T-Birds led to a four-run inning in the bottom of the sixth as a Freund leadoff double came around to score on a Cam MaCleod two-RBI double before seeing a Landon Meyer RBI double score MaCleod with Meyer coming around to score on a stolen base and wild pitch to cap off a four-run inning. Finishing off a second-straight complete game for CCCC on the mound, MacIntosh struck out the final two batters of the game and finished with eight strikeouts on 85 total pitches while allowing just two hits and two walks to face three batters over the minimum.

Offensively, Cloud County got a two-hit contest from Freund along with six other batters each recording one hit as four of the eight hits went for extra bases for CCCC. Meyer stole the lone base of the game while seeing Jakob Poturnak and Easton Mould each get hit by a pitch as the T-Birds stranded just four base runners in the contest and extended their defensive scoreless streak to 15 consecutive innings.

Game Two:
Scoring in five of the seven innings in the game, Cloud County got out first and second-inning jams after Pratt drew five walks through the first two innings of play and put base runners in scoring position in each inning before inning-ending flyouts. After stranding a two-out single in the bottom of the first, Cloud County got a Poturnak double down the left field line before coming around to score on a Noah Konings RBI single as the T-Birds took a 1-0 lead into the top of the third.

CCCC found themselves in another jam in the top of the third with the bases becoming loaded with two singles and a walk before back-to-back fielder's choices that cut down game-tying runs at the plate followed by a strikeout to strand the bases loaded as Pratt stranded seven base runners through three innings. The momentum swing that came with the T-Birds keeping Pratt off the scoreboard allowed Cloud County to add to their lead in the bottom of the inning with a two-run home run from Freund to bring home a Roy leadoff double and make the score 3-0 in favor of CCCC before pushing across another run on a Poturnak RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to go up 4-0.

Finally putting together a big inning offensively in the sixth, Cloud County put three of their first four batters safely on base despite going hitless in the first four at-bats as walks by Meyer and Shakotko were combined with a Roy hit-by-pitch to load the bases followed by a Freund hit-by-pitch to bring home a run and make it a 5-0 game. Poturnak followed with an RBI walk before a pitching change by the Beavers with CCCC getting a Konings RBI single that ended up halfway between home plate and third base to cap off a three-run inning that came on just one hit to put Cloud County up 7-0.

Keeping Pratt off the scoreboard for the 14th straight inning of baseball on the afternoon, the T-Birds managed to put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh with a Roy hit-by-pitch setting up an RBI double from Shakotko to bring the game-ending run to the plate with Freund extending the inning with a single followed by a game-ending three-run home run for Poturnak on his team-leading eighth homer of the year.

Inconceivably, Cloud County shut Pratt out in the game despite issuing eight walks and hitting three batters as the Beavers stranded 12 base runners while being limited to four hits in the game to finish the series by scoring in just one of the 28 innings that were played on the weekend. With three consecutive shutouts to finish out the series, Cloud County saw Zach Sharshel pick up the win to improve to 2-0 after throwing 3.1 innings in relief before turning things over to Conlin Grady who threw the final two innings and struck out three as CCCC struck out six Beaver batters in the game.

Offensively, CCCC saw seven of their 12 hits go for extra-bases with Poturnak going three-for-four with three extra-base hits and five-RBI to bookend the series with multi-hit games. Joining Poturnak with a three-hit game was Shakotko with a three-for-four performance and two runs scored while Freund and Konings each had two hits with 10 of the 12 hits coming from the three through six-hole hitters in the lineup.

What's Next?
Cloud County is scheduled to make a return trip to Council Bluffs, Iowa to finish off a two-game home-and-home series with the number-five ranked Iowa Western Community College Reivers with a single, nine-inning game at 2 PM on Monday, March 18th. Set to take on IWCC for the second time in a week, CCCC dropped a 6-2 decision to Iowa Western this past Tuesday in the first game between the two teams.