CONCORDIA – With pieces returning from what have arguably been two of the most successful seasons in program history, the Cloud County Community College baseball team is looking to take the next step forward in their program trajectory ahead of their season opener on Thursday afternoon at Fort Scott.
Having posted a record of 48-28 overall in the past two seasons, the T-Birds are ready to pick up where they left off last year when they started the season by winning 14 of their first 18 games of the season before having the remainder of the year shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think everybody is just excited to be having the opportunity to play baseball again after such a long layoff” said head coach Eric Gilliland. “We return some very good players offensively up the middle but will have a lot of new faces on the mound.” “With that being said, we feel like we have more depth on the mound than in years past and some young guys that have some really good stuff.” “It will be exciting to see it all come together as we can hopefully continue what we’ve been able to accomplish the past two years.”
Among the returning pieces on the offensive side are COVID-freshman Jaden Parsons, Noah Olson, Trevor Stevens, and Jack Correll as the four combined to appear in 55 games and collectively hit .331 with 18 extra-base hits and 36 RBI. Parsons, Stevens, and Olson have all already signed national letters of intent to move on next fall to the University of Central Oklahoma as a total of six T-Birds have inked their names to move on to the NCAA Division I and II level after this season (COVID-Freshman transfer Kayden Beauregard – Illinois State University, Carl Aikman – Emporia State, and Evan Wilde – Niagra University).
On the mound, just seven pitchers who saw action last year are back for the 2021 campaign for CCCC, led by Evan Wilde and Jarod Leroux as the two throw 21.1 and 6.0 innings last year, respectively. Wilde filled into the game two starting role as part of the weekend rotation and managed to go 3-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 24 strikeouts while allowing just three earned runs on 13 total hits. Leroux saw action out of the bullpen for the T-Birds and will be expected to take on a bigger role this season as will Carl Aikman (three appearances in 2020, 3.2 innings pitched, 0.00 ERA) and Javier Cruz (three appearances in 2020, 2.2 innings pitched, 0.00 ERA).
The T-Birds waste no time in jumping into the meat of their schedule as a season-opening three-game series at Fort Scott will be followed up by a three-game weekend in Weatherford, Texas against Weatherford College and Galveston College. Other notable non-conference contests this year for Cloud County include games against nationally-ranked Crowder College and a three-game series with Cowley College as well as a mid-week doubleheader with Kansas City Kansas Community College.
Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play is set to begin on Thursday, March 11th as Cloud County will host Seward County for a doubleheader to kick off a 32-game conference slate. The T-Birds are scheduled to play their home opener later this month on February 27th as CCCC will host Marshalltown Community College for a four-game non-conference series.
The full schedule for Cloud County can be online at www.cloudtbirds.com with any schedule changes that may occur during the year being announced as they happen at the same link. Fans wishing to watch home T-Bird baseball games will be able to view most scheduled home games via free live stream which is available at www.cloudtbirds.com/video/tbirdsportsnetwork.
--cloudtbirds.com--