Ethan Price Throws 12th No-Hitter in Program History, Cloud County Baseball Sweeps Kansas Wesleyan JV
Behind the 12th no-hitter in program history and first complete-game no-hitter in 25 years, the Cloud County Community College baseball team had little trouble in sweeping their final non-conference doubleheader of the year with a 10-0 and 12-1 win over the Kansas Wesleyan University JV team at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia, Kansas on Monday, April 15th.
Wins in six of their past seven games have propelled Cloud County to a 31-13 overall record while finishing non-conference play with 16 wins. KWU JV concludes their season with a 23-12 overall record.
Game One:
Twirling the no-hitter in just his second start of the season, sophomore Ethan Price faced just one batter over the minimum in his five innings of work while needing just 61 total pitches as a two-out walk in the top of the first was the lone base runner for the Coyotes. Taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly from Jakob Poturnak to score Gavin Roy, the T-Birds added two runs in the bottom of the second with a wild pitch scoring Justin Johnson before seeing Landon Meyer hit a sacrifice fly to score Noah Konings. The lead grew again in the bottom of the third with Johnson hitting an RBI single to score Demitri Shakotko before seeing the game break open in the bottom of the fourth with Meyer and Easton Mould going back-to-back with solo home runs that put CCCC up 6-0. Not wanting to play longer than necessary, Cloud County put the first three batters of the bottom of the fifth inning on base with Johnson hitting an RBI double and eventually scoring two batters later on a balk. Mould drove in his second RBI of the game with a one-out single to score Konings followed by a Stryker Hake pinch-hit double to put the game-ending run at third base with Paul Schuyler collecting his second hit of the game with a base hit to left to finish off the run-rule victory.
A three-for-three effort from Shakotko led the way for the T-Birds as five different players had multi-hit games including Johnson who went two-for-two with two RBI and two runs scored. As a team, Cloud County pounded out 15 hits and stranded just four base runners with nine of the 11 batters to record a plate appearance having at least one hit.
The complete-game no-hitter by Price featured a career-best 10 strikeouts for the Bowmanville, Ontario native to become the first player since Andy Bent in 1999 to start and finish a no-hitter for the T-Birds. Monday's game also marked the third consecutive no-hitter in program history coming against Kansas Wesleyan JV with the feat last being accomplished in 2019 by four different pitchers.
Game Two:
The long ball and free base runners told the story of game two as Cloud County had just six hits but saw two towering home runs break a scoreless tie and 1-1 tie in each of the first two innings for CCCC as the T-Birds sent 15 batters to the plate in the bottom of the second as part of a 10-run inning. Meyer's second home run of the day broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the first before seeing Johnson hit a solo shot that went off the light standard in left field as CCCC went on to get a two-RBI double from Mould and RBI single from Meyer in the inning to go along with six other runs scoring in various ways.
Having built a 10-run lead heading into the top of the third, Cloud County worked around a pair of two-out base runners to keep KWU JV from cutting into the lead before being held off the scoreboard themselves in the inning as the 11-1 lead was taken into the fourth. The best threat of the game for Kansas Wesleyan JV came in the fourth as three-straight one-out walks loaded the bases and put T-Bird reliever Cohen Evans in a jam that was eventually worked out of with a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning. One final insurance run was scored by Cloud County in the bottom of the fourth as a Dawson Feil leadoff double came around to score on a wild pitch two batters later with the T-Birds stranding a pair of base runners that reached later in the inning. One final move to the bullpen brought Eric Bradicich in for his first appearance on the mound this season with a strikeout to begin the inning getting paired with a game-ending double play after an error allowed one final Coyote base runner to reach base.
Both Mould and Meyer drove in two runs each with Meyer finishing as the lone player for Cloud County with multiple hits by going two-for-three with two runs scored. Seven different T-Birds drew at least one walk each as nine walks and two hit batters made up for the lack of hits in the game by CCCC with five of the six hits recorded by Cloud County going for extra-bases. Jackson Cross picked up his first win of the year on the mound after throwing two innings and allowing one run on three hits before turning things over to Wil Yamka who tossed a scoreless third inning with two strikeouts. Evans and Bradicich each threw one inning in relief, facing a total of eight batters and not allowing a hit over the final two innings of work.
What's Next?
A battle of the top two teams in the Kansas Jayhawk Community Conference West Division as part of a four-game series kicks off on Thursday, April 18th as the T-Birds head to Hobart-Detter Field to take on the 17th-ranked Hutchinson Blue Dragons in a 1 PM doubleheader. The Blue Dragons saw a 20-game winning streak snapped on Monday afternoon in a 9-3 loss to number 18 Kansas City Kansas Community College. Now 36-9 overall, HCC is 21-3 in the KJCCC West with the only losses in conference play for Hutchinson coming against Butler Community College.