Cloud County Baseball Wins Series with Saturday Sweep of Butler Community College
Five-run innings in the bottom of the sixth of game one and bottom of the fifth of game two would break open tie games for the Cloud County Community College baseball team to go on and sweep a home doubleheader over Butler Community College by scores of 8-3 and 14-10 to take a 3-1 series victory at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Saturday, April 2nd.
A third-straight series victory puts Cloud County at 10-1 in their past 11 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference games to move to 26-8 overall and 11-5 in the KJCCC West Division while Butler drops the final three games of the series to fall to 18-13 overall and 8-8 in the KJCCC.
GAME ONE:
It would appear as though fans would be settling into another pitcher's duel like the one seen in game one of the series as Butler would push across the lone run of the game that was scored in the first three innings of play with a leadoff double and balk setting up an RBI groundout to give the Grizzlies an early lead. After being limited to just one hit through three innings, the CCCC offense would wake up in the bottom of the fourth as Kolden Howerton and Willie Ponce would draw back-to-back walks in the inning to give the T-Birds their best scoring opportunity up that point. Opting to send a pinch-hitter to the plate, Tristan Tenorio would initially be asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt until a wild pitch would advance both runners and allow Tenorio to draw a walk of his own on a wild pitch that would tie the game at 1-1. After a strikeout would put the first out on the board in the inning, Alexander Diaz would hit an RBI groundout to give Cloud County their first lead of the game before a fielding error would allow a third run to come home and stake the T-Birds to a two-run lead.
Butler would respond with one run in the top of the fifth with a walk, single and, RBI groundout cutting the CCCC lead in half before a one-two-three inning in the bottom of the fifth would flip momentum back in favor of the Grizzlies. BCCC would push across another single run in the top of the sixth as a leadoff single and three wild pitches would allow Sam Siegel to work his way around the bases and knot things up at 3-3. Once again, a free pass would prove to be to the benefit of the T-Birds as Karson Green would draw a leadoff before being pinch-ran for by Danny Infante following a fly out to right field by Joel Benes. A Diaz single would move Infante to second before an Adler Pierson RBI single would break the 3-3 tie to put CCCC back out in front. Insurance runs would then be scored with an Ian Riley two-RBI double just inside the right-field line to score both Pierson and Diaz before seeing Poole hit a towering two-run home run to right for his conference-leading 11th dinger of the year to cap off a five-run sixth for Cloud County.
Needing just three outs to secure at minimum a split of the weekend series, CCCC would make sure that things would go rather quickly in the top of the seventh as reliever Rans Sanders would come in for his second appearance in as many games to work around a leadoff single to induce a fielder's choice, foul out and a groundout to end the game.
Eight runs on six hits would prove to be efficiency at its finest for Cloud County as the T-Birds would take advantage of one Butler error, six walks, and a hit batter. Pierson would finish as the only CCCC player to collect more than one hit with Riley driving in a game-high two runs and drawing a walk in four plate appearances. Taking a no-decision after throwing five innings to allow two runs on four hits while striking out four. Aaron Hayes would wind up taking the win in relief following a one-inning outing that saw one hit lead to an earned run for the Weatherford, Texas native with two strikeouts.
GAME TWO:
A much different style of play would be seen in the series finale as a back-and-forth contest through four-innings of play would be broken up by the T-Birds in the middle innings after trailing by scores of 3-0, 4-2, and 7-6. Two errors in the top of the second would allow Butler to jump out to an early 3-0 lead as a strikeout wild pitch would put a base-runner on before a fielding error and muffed throw on a sacrifice bunt attempt would load the bases with no outs. A wild pitch would bring home the first run of the game that would be followed by an RBI groundout and RBI single before the T-Birds would finally work their way out of the inning with a strikeout to leave two runners in scoring position.
Cloud County's half of the second would see a leadoff single from Howerton come around to score two batters later as Williams Camacho-Soto would start his day with a double to left field that would be followed by an RBI single from Diaz. A fielder's choice by Benes would drive in CCCC's second run of the game that would bring the deficit to one for the T-Birds.
A two-out rally for the Grizzlies in the top of the third would allow Butler to add to their lead with two singles and a hit batter contributing to the solo run scored before an infield popup ended the inning with two more runners getting stranded. In Cloud County's turn at the plate in the third, an Ian Riley walk would be followed by a throwing error in Garrett Redden's at-bat as a throw across the diamond would pull the first baseman off the bag and put two runners aboard for Howerton to launch a moon-shot three-run homer to right field and give CCCC their first lead of the game. Another error by BCCC would put Camacho-Soto on base as a stolen base would set up a Ty Wevers RBI single to left field to cap off a four-run inning that featured just two hits for the T-Birds.
Answering the three-run home run by Cloud County would be Butler in the very next half inning as another two-out rally would prove costly for CCCC with Butler getting a hit batter and walk to put two runners on and set up a go-ahead three-run homer for the Grizzlies to take a 7-6 lead. Not to be outdone, the T-Birds would get Riley to draw his third walk of the day that would be followed by a groundout to move the Austin, Texas native into scoring position for Poole who would rope a triple into the left-center field gap and tie things at 7-7.
The game would finally see a scoreless half-inning in the top of the fifth that would swing momentum in favor of Cloud County as the T-Birds would look to reclaim the lead before doing so in a big way in their opportunity at the plate in the inning. After a Benes leadoff single and Pierson one-out walk, Riley would come up big with a go-ahead RBI single before stealing second and seeing Redden get hit by a pitch to load the bases. After a pitching change for Butler, Poole would come up and hit his second triple of the game with a ball just inside the right-field line to clear the bases and drive in three-more runs to break the game open and put Cloud County up 11-7. A wild pitch would then bring home Poole to cap off a five-run inning for CCCC as Butler would be left searching for answers on the mound on how to stop the potent T-Bird offense.
Yet another walk would lead to a run in the top of the sixth for Butler, as a groundout and wild pitch would put the runner at third with a mis-throw on the toss back to the pitcher allowing the runner to take home on a play that was initially ruled an out but would be reversed into a safe call and run that would see both head coaches ejected from the contest for arguing the call. Cloud County would respond with two walks to set up a two-RBI double for Redden to take their largest lead of the day at 14-8 and start to look more and more likely on their way to a series win.
The tense moments that were seen throughout the fifth and sixth innings finally managed to give way to things settling down in the seventh and eighth as each team would manage to record just one hit each in the two innings to keep things at a six-run lead heading to the ninth. Butler would look to put together a late rally in their final opportunity at the plate, putting together a hit batter and walk to put two runners on before a strikeout would put an out on the board. After a fielder's choice would eliminate the trail runner, a throwing error on an attempt at a game-ending double play would lead to an unearned run and be followed by a second error that would push a second run across in the inning. Staying composed, however, the T-Birds would get a groundout on the very next pitch to end the game and hold on for a four-run victory.
Eight more free passes and three hit batters would be combined with 12 CCCC hits to put together the 14-run performance as the T-Birds would improve to 18-0 on the year when scoring 10 or more runs. Poole would drive in a game-high four runs in a three-for-six effort at the plate for yet another massive game against the Grizzlies while eight of the nine batters in the Cloud County lineup would record at least one hit.
Three pitchers would see action in the game for CCCC, including starter Haden Down who would go four innings and allow seven runs (four earned) on six hits despite striking out six. Brady Stuewe would then come in relief to throw three innings and allow just one unearned run on one hit while adding four more strikeouts before seeing Cole Askew throw the final two innings and strike out four batters of his own for a total of 14 strikeouts from the Cloud County pitching staff.
What's Next?
Cloud County will host their last scheduled home non-conference games on Monday, April 4th at 2 PM as the Concordia University Nebraska JV team will come to Lee Doyen Field for a pair of seven-inning contests. Through 18 non-conference games this season, CCCC is 15-3 against opponents and 6-1 in non-conference home games at Lee Doyen Field.