Apr 11, 2021

Starting pitching leads T-Bird baseball to home sweep

Posted Apr 11, 2021 2:44 AM

CONCORDIA – Dominant pitching performances from starters Kolby Dougan and Evan Wilde would lead to 23 strikeouts and a pair of wins for the Cloud County Community College baseball team in non-conference action over Kansas City Kansas Community College at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia on Friday.

Winning by scores of 2-0 and 5-1, Cloud County has now won 10 of their last 11 contests to improve to 20-12 on the year while the Blue Devils have now lost six straight to fall to 10-12 overall.

Game one
Avoiding an early threat from KCKCC in the top of the first inning after a catcher's interference and walk would put two on for the Blue Devils, Cloud County would manage to put together a threat of their own in the bottom of the first with walks Willie Ponce and Noah Olson. Ponce would steal second during the Olson at-bat before advancing to third base on a passed ball to set up a delayed steal from Olson that would allow the freshman to come home and score the first run of the game.

Cloud County would then work a one-two-three top of the second before stranding a one-out double from Williams Camacho-Soto as things would stay a 1-0 CCCC lead until the bottom of the third. In the bottom of the third, the T-Birds would get doubles from Olson and Beauregard with the hit from Beauregard coming with two outs to drive home Olson and double the Cloud County lead.

Another threat from Kansas City Kansas in the top of the fourth would see back-to-back two-out singles from the Blue Devils put runners on the corners as Dougan would run into his first real jam of the game but get a pop out to end the inning and keep things at a 2-0 CCCC lead. Cloud County would then be unable to do anything with a one-out single in the bottom of the inning but keep KCKCC scoreless in the top of fifth. Looking to add an insurance run, the T-Birds would appear to get a two-out rally going with a walk and hit batter before a wild pitch would move both runners into scoring position as a flyout would strand both runners.

The rest of the game would see just one hit coming courtesy of the Blue Devils in the top of the seventh as KCKCC would get a leadoff single and walk to put the game-tying run on base but see a sacrifice bunt, strikeout, and pop out end the game as Cloud County would earn their second shutout of the year.

Going six innings and allowing just two hits and two walks to earn his sixth win of the year would be Dougan as the freshman would face just four batters over the minimum in his outing. Reliever Javier Cruz would then throw a scoreless seventh while striking out one and allowing one hit to pick up his second save of the year while preserving the win for Cloud County.

Returning to the CCCC lineup for the first time since March eighth would be Beauregard as the redshirt freshman would go one-for-three with an RBI to lead the T-Birds. The bottom third of the lineup represented by Camacho-Soto, Jose Luna, and Adler Pierson would also each record a hit to account for three of Cloud County's five hits in the ball game.

Game two
Originally scheduled for a nine-inning contest, mother nature would have other plans in the second game as Cloud County and Kansas City Kansas would have to call things following the conclusion of the seventh inning with rain making its way into the area.

Two scoreless innings to start the game would make way for three runs to come across in the bottom of the third as the first three batters for CCCC in the inning would safely reach base. A leadoff double from Ponce would be followed by a single from Jaden Parsons to put runners on the corners as Olson would keep things going with an RBI single to keep runners on the corners before stealing second to put a pair of runners in scoring position and a 1-0 T-Bird lead. Beauregard would add a second run with a sacrifice fly while moving Olson to third as Camacho-Soto would follow suit with a second-straight sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 Cloud County heading to the top of the fourth.

Five of the next six outs defensively for CCCC would be recorded via strikeout as Wilde would be nearly unhittable through six innings of work. With things remaining a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, Cloud County would get a leadoff single from Beauregard and a one-out single from Redden to put two runners on for Ian Riley. A fielder's choice and misread on the base paths would end the inning however as the T-Birds would be held scoreless in the inning with a missed opportunity to add to their lead.

KCKCC would use a leadoff walk and single to scratch across a single run in the top of the seventh as a double steal would move the runners into scoring position before a wild pitch allowed one run to score. Three strikeouts from Wilde in the inning however would keep Kansas City Kansas from doing any more damage as the lead for CCCC would sit at 3-1 heading to the bottom of the seventh.

Three walks, a single, and hit batter would allow Cloud County to push across two runs in the bottom of the seventh as the T-Birds would be able to finish off the inning before the weather would find its way into the area. With the game having reached the minimum length to be considered a full game (five innings) and the two teams not scheduled to play each other the rest of the year, the game would be called with Cloud County taking the four-run victory.  

An equally impressive outing from Wilde would see the Airdrie, Alberta native throw his first complete game of the year and fourth overall by the T-Bird pitching staff as 13 of the 21 outs recorded by the freshman would be punch outs. Only four batters would reach base for KCKCC, with Wilde allowing three hits and one walk leading to the lone run scored by the Blue Devils.

Beauregard would follow up his game-one performance with a two-for-two outing in game two to go along with an RBI and walk to reach base three times while Olson would draw two walks as part of a one-for-two performance with an RBI. Camacho-Soto would drive in a team-best two runs and draw a walk as CCCC would manage to earn five free passes against the Kansas City Kansas pitching staff.

What's next
Cloud County will be off for the rest of the weekend and is not scheduled to play again until Thursday when the T-Birds host Hutchinson Community College to open a four-game series at 1 p.m. Hutchinson boasts a 21-9 overall record and 15-3 conference mark ahead of a road doubleheader on Saturday at Garden City to close out a four-game series with the Broncbusters in what will be their final action before next Thursday's doubleheader.  

--cloudtbirds.com--