Cloud County Softball Splits Home Doubleheader with Central Community College
Starting their final week of non-conference action with a home doubleheader, the Cloud County Community College softball team earned a 6-2 win in game one over Central Community College as part of a split as the visiting Raiders earned a 10-0 win in game two at the CCCC Softball Field in Concordia, Kansas on Wednesday, March 20th.
The win in game one allows Cloud County to take three of the four games played against Central CC this season while improving to 13-7 overall on the year. Central moves to 11-8 overall and has won three of their last four games following a four-game losing streak prior to their recent stretch of strong play.
Game One:
Taking advantage of a 1-0 lead after one inning of play with a Brooklynn McCormick RBI single staking the T-Birds to an early lead, CCCC never trailed in the opening contest while holding Central scoreless through five innings of play. Following the one run coming on two hits in the bottom of the first, Cloud County was retired in order in both the bottom of the second and third before putting together their best offensive inning of the day in the bottom of the fourth with 10 batters coming to the plate as part of a five-run inning. Following a hit batter to start the inning, CCCC got a McCormick single which set up a two-RBI single from Harley Smith to add to the lead before a Raider error that extended the inning and allowed for three additional runs (all unearned) to score with both Kaitlynn Baca and Kaylee Pinneo driving home runners with base hit singles. The six-run lead was more than enough for T-Bird starting pitcher Kiera Brack to work with as Central was only able to push across two runs in the top of the sixth with three-straight two-out base hits to score their only two runs of the game.
With both teams finishing with seven hits and five stranded base runners, it was free base runners that proved to be the difference as Cloud County scored three of their six runs off the lone Central error and drew the only two walks of the game in addition to a hit batter. Offensively, CCCC used two-hit games from Baca, McCormick, and Smith with Baca scoring twice and Smith driving in two runs alongside Pinneo who also finished with two RBI. In the circle, Brack struck out four and allowed two runs on 108 total pitches to earn her seventh win of the year and improve to 7-3 overall.
Game Two:
Never being able to pose an offensive threat to get on the scoreboard, CCCC stranded one base runner in each of the first two innings before stranding a pair in the bottom of the third with four runners left on base proving to be missed opportunities in a scoreless game heading to the fourth. In the top of the fourth, the Raiders used an infield single and walk to put two base runners on with no outs before a sacrifice bunt and RBI groundout to get on the scoreboard which was followed by a wild pitch that brought home one additional run as part of a two-run inning.
Central doubled their lead in the fifth with two more runs coming home on a two-out double into right field before breaking the game open for good with a three-run inning in the top of the sixth on two hits and a T-Bird error that allowed an unearned run to score following a two-RBI double earlier in the inning. The seven-run deficit for Cloud County grew one final time in the top of the seventh as Central tacked on another three runs on four hits with the T-Birds stranding a pair of base runners in both the sixth and seventh innings as part of nine stranded runners in the game.
Baca once again went two-for-four to finish the day with four hits while five other players for CCCC (Alyssa Reynolds, Pinneo, McCormick, Smith, and Madyson Buescher) all recorded one hit each. Despite drawing two walks, Cloud County was unable to advance a runner past second base as Central pitcher Andrea Palma threw a complete game and struck out six on 95 total pitches. The T-Birds had two different pitchers throw in the game, with Paige Mahler going 5.1 innings and giving up seven runs (six earned) on seven hits before turning things over to Brecken Whitney for the final 1.2 innings.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Cloud County has moved their doubleheader with Kansas Wesleyan University JV up from Friday afternoon to Thursday, March 21st with first pitch set for 2 PM at the CCCC Softball Field. The doubleheader was moved up 24 hours to accommodate changes with the KWU varsity schedule that has recently taken place. The games for the T-Birds will serve as the final non-conference games of the season with CCCC starting their 22-game Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference slate next week on the road.