Cloud County Baseball Team Sweeps Butler Community College on Sophomore Day
Needing just one win to secure their best finish in program history in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division, the Cloud County Community College baseball team scored 12 runs over the final three innings of a 14-3, six-inning victory before bookending a strong start and strong finish as part of a 9-5 game two victory to sweep visiting Butler Community College in their final doubleheader of the regular season at Lee Doyen Field on Saturday, May 4th.
Honoring 15 sophomores between games and holding an alumni reunion as part of the weekend festivities, Cloud County bounces back from a pair of defeats to the Grizzlies on Friday to improve to 38-18 overall and finish the KJCCC West Division with a program-best 22-10 mark to secure a second-place finish in the division. Butler sees their hopes of securing the two seed turn into a drop all the way down to the four-seed in the KJCCC West following the defeats with BCC now 30-25 overall and 19-13 in the Jayhawk West to conclude their regular season.
Game One:
After allowing 18 free base runners in the form of walks and hit batters on Friday in El Dorado, the T-Bird pitching staff cleaned things up in a big way to open the day on Saturday as CCCC did not walk a single batter or hit anyone in mercy-rule shortened win. A shaky start for Cloud County saw Butler put together four-straight hits to begin the game and jump out to a 2-0 lead before having freshman pitcher Noah Bourgeois settle in with a sacrifice bunt leading to the first of three-straight outs to get out of the inning with just two runs given up and two runners being stranded by BCC.
A leadoff single for Paul Schuyler in the bottom of the second saw the Bellevue, Nebraska native take advantage of a throwing error on the play to move from first to third and allow Gavin Roy to drive in a run with a sacrifice fly to get the T-Birds back within a run at 2-1 after one inning of play. Another solo run came home in the bottom of the second as a Landon Meyer single into shallow right field just inside the foul line was followed by a stolen base and advancement on a Justin Johnson flyout to set up a Cam MaCleod RBI single to tie things at 2-2.
Following a scoreless third, Butler reclaimed a one-run lead in the top of the fourth as a leadoff double and sacrifice bunt created a two-out RBI single situation for Breon Horne to give the Grizzlies a 3-2 lead that proved to be short-lived as Cloud County responded with four of their first five batters in the bottom of the inning safely reaching base to put together a rally of their own. With a Meyer single to lead off the inning, Johnson followed with a single back up the middle as both runners advanced on a balk and set up an Austin Coyle RBI bunt single to first base to tie the game. Coyle wasted no time in stealing second to put two runners in scoring position with Roy reaching on a fielder's choice along with a throwing error with BCC trying to turn a double play to end the inning which allowed Coyle to score from second. Demitri Shakotko kept the inning going with his record-breaking 85 hit of the season to bring home Roy on a two-out single as CCCC put together a four-run, four-hit inning to go up 6-3 heading to the fifth.
Working a quick one-two-three top of the fifth, Cloud County got back to the plate where a two-out rally was started with Johnson getting hit by a pitch followed by a MaCleod RBI double into center field to force a Grizzly pitching change. Coyle brought home MaCleod to welcome reliever Jack Laird into the contest with Schuyler driving home one more run on an RBI single to cap off a three-run inning for CCCC. Having built a 9-3 lead after trailing 3-2, the T-Birds worked around a two-out single in the sixth before putting Roy and Shakotko on with base-hit singles to set up a three-run home run for Jakob Poturnak to put Cloud County on the verge of winning by mercy rule. With still no outs in the inning, Noah Konings kept the rally going and the potential for the game to end in the sixth by wearing a pitch followed by a Meyer fielders' choice and Johnson groundout back to the pitcher to put the game-ending run at second. MaCleod took no chances of the game-ending run getting thrown out on the base paths and instead blasted a two-run home run to left field to end the game with his game-leading third and fourth RBIs.
Stringing together 15 hits and finishing with a .500 batting average in the game, Cloud County outhit Butler 15-8 and struck out just four times to strand four total base runners with eight different batters recording at least one hit. Three-hit games from Shakotko and MaCleod led the effort Shakotko tying the single-season hit record set by Matt Bondarchuk in 2017 before going on to set the new mark with two additional hits. In addition to the four-RBI effort from MaCleod, Poturnak drove in three and Roy had two RBI with six different players driving in at least one run. Going the distance on the mound in just his fourth start of the year was Bourgeois by needing 75 pitches to face eight batters over the minimum and settling in to allow just four hits to the final 22 batters after giving up four straight hits to begin the game to go along with three strikeouts.
Game Two:
No longer dealing with the pressure of needing a win to secure the two-seed in the KJCCC West, Cloud County looked much looser and less pressured in game two as the T-Birds got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first by inducing an inning-ending double play to allow just one run to score on three hits before pushing across two runs of their own on one hit in the bottom of the first by taking advantage of three hit batters and a wild pitch to go up 2-1. A relatively quiet second inning saw BCC retired in order before working around a one-out single by CCCC as the Grizzlies saw a prime opportunity to get some run support in the third inning get turned away as two walks and a throwing error loaded the bases with two outs before an inning-ending fielder's choice.
Momentum looked to clearly shift with Cloud County getting out of the jam in the top of the third as the T-Birds put both Shakotko and Poturnak aboard to begin the inning and set up a two-out rally that saw Nolan Freund load the bases with a single up the middle followed by an RBI walk from MaCleod, RBI infield single by Coyle and Schuyler reaching on a fielding error to bring home three runs on three this and an error. Working with a 5-1 lead did not last long however for CCCC as Butler began to show patience at the plate and take advantage of what worked for them on Friday with three walks, a hit batter, and three hits leading to a four-run inning to tie the game at 5-5.
Retired in order in the bottom of the fourth, CCCC was able to work a clean top of the fifth and reclaim momentum again heading into the bottom of the inning where a two-out rally was started with MaCleod getting hit by a pitch followed by a Coyle walk and a fielding error in the outfield on a fly ball that allowed two unearned runs to score. Having caught a big break to reclaim the lead, Cloud County had Roy deliver with one more run coming home on a base-hit into right-center field to cap off a three-run inning on just one hit that allowed the T-Birds to reclaim the lead.
Things remained an 8-5 lead for Cloud County through seven innings of play with just one hit occurring over the course of the next two innings of action before seeing a Butler put together a rally in the top of the eighth. Following a single on a bunt down the third-base line, the Grizzlies drew back-to-back walks to load the bases with no outs but saw a strikeout and another inning-ending double play come on a miscue on the base paths that allowed T-Bird reliever Caden Walker to work out of the jam and keep the three-run lead intact. Adding an insurance run with Johnson hitting a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to score Schuyler, Cloud County went on to work around a one-out pinch-hit single in the top of the ninth to close things out without facing much pressure from BCC to earn a series split and protect their home field.
Despite being limited to only six hits, Cloud County drew four walks and six hit batters while taking advantage of three Butler errors to bring home four unearned runs that proved to be the difference in the game as the Grizzlies finished with nine hits but stranded 13 base runners. Shakotko and Coyle each finished with two hits each while five different players for CCCC drove in one run each with Schuyler scoring a game-high three times in the leadoff spot. On the mound, five different pitchers saw action for Cloud County with Ethan Price picking up the win in relief after throwing 3.1 innings and striking out three on 63 total pitches.
Region VI / Plains District Tournament:
With the second-place finish in the KJCCC West Division, Cloud County will enter next week's NJCAA Region VI / Plains District Tournament as the number-four overall seed and will host the seventh-place finisher from the KJCCC East Allen Community College in a best-of-three series at Lee Doyen Field. The series will get underway on Thursday afternoon with game two set for Friday and an if-necessary game three set for Saturday. Game times for each day are still being finalized as the winner of the Cloud County/Allen series will meet the winner of the Kansas City Kansas/Seward County series that is set to take place next week in Kansas City. The eight winners of the best-of-three opening round series will meet in a double-elimination tournament beginning on Wednesday, May 15th at Eck Stadium on the campus of Wichita State University.