T-Bird baseball's Sophomore Day spoiled by red-hot Cougars

CONCORDIA – The hangover effect from a Thursday road doubleheader loss would be in full effect Friday afternoon as the Cloud County Community College baseball team would be unable to secure a win in its four-game series with Barton Community College to drop a home doubleheader by scores of 9-0 and 15-7 at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia.

Finishing the regular-season as one of just five Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference teams to play their full limit of 50 games, Cloud County ends the regular-season with a 28-22 overall record and a 17-15 mark in the KJCCC West Division. Barton has now won nine of their last 10 games to enter postseason play with a 33-16 overall mark and 20-12 mark in the KJCCC.

Game one
A potent offensive display from the Cougars would see Barton go up 1-0 in the top of the second with a one-out home run as BCCC would tack on a second run just an inning later with a one-out double and wild pitch setting up a sacrifice fly opportunity. With Barton recording the only three hits of the first three innings of play, Cloud County would finally break through with a base hit in the bottom of the fourth but see a double-play ball erase the base runner as Cougar starter Zach Thornton would face the minimum through the first four innings.

The 2-0 BCCC lead would grow again in the top of the fifth as two hit batters and an error would lead to a run for Barton with Cloud County still unable to get anything going offensively in their half of the inning. Things would fall apart for the T-Birds in the top of the sixth as six of the first seven batters of the inning would safely reach base with the only out coming on a sacrifice bunt as the Cougars would settle for five runs on four hits to take a commanding 8-0 lead.

Cloud County's best chance at producing some offense would come in the bottom of the sixth as CCCC would use a one-out single from Adler Pierson and Willie Ponce two-out single to put runners on the corners, but a strikeout would end the inning and keep the T-Birds scoreless. One final run would be pushed across by BCCC in the top of the seventh as a one-two-three inning from Cloud County would end the game and see CCCC be shut out for the first time all season.

Getting out-hit 10-3, CCCC would have all three of their hits go down as singles while also drawing two walks for a total of five base runners. Five strikeouts would not help the cause for the T-Birds as would three defensive fielding errors which accounted for one of Barton's nine runs.

Game two
Both teams would strand runners in the first inning as Cloud County would record the lone hit of the opening inning before conceding a run on a leadoff triple and RBI single by Barton in the top of the second. T-Bird starting pitcher Christian Womble would then settle in to get out of the inning without any more damage as the score would remain a 1-0 BCCC lead until the bottom of the fourth.

Having stranded a runner in both the bottom of the first and the bottom of the third, CCCC would get on the board on the first pitch of the bottom of the fourth as Ian Riley would turn on a pitch to left field and clear the outfield fence by a few feet to tie things up at 1-1. The very next batter in Kayden Beauregard would then leave no-doubt in his at-bat as he would make it back-to-back home runs with a moon shot that would give Cloud County their first lead of the afternoon. The two home runs along with a one-out walk would eventually force BCCC to make a pitching change as the T-Birds would be unable to score any more runs but still manage to take the lead 2-1 heading to the fifth.

Following two quick outs to start the top of the fifth, Barton would manage to put together a two-out rally as a walk and RBI triple would tie things momentarily as a throwing error trying to get the runner at third would find its way to the third-base dugout and allow the runner to take home on an error. The next batter would foul out to catcher Jose Luna, but the damage would be done as Barton would reclaim the lead at 3-2.

A pair of one-out singles and a passed ball would put two runners in scoring position for Cloud County in the bottom of the fifth, but back-to-back strikeouts would end the potential threat as the Cougars would hold onto their lead after five. Defensive struggles along with some pitching woes would then come into play for CCCC as a lengthy top of the sixth inning would lead to eight runs on five hits and two errors to put Barton up 11-2.

Looking as though the Cougars would run away with the series finale, Cloud County would take advantage of two free passes early in the bottom of the sixth to kick start a rally that would get going with a Noah Olson two RBI single. Following a wild pitch that would allow runners at first and second to take an extra 90 feet, A Jaden Parsons two RBI single would put the third and fourth runs of the inning on the board for the T-Birds as the game would become an 11-6 CCCC deficit. Cloud County would add one final run in the inning on a wild pitch as a change at catcher for Barton to go along with a pitching change would get CCCC to end the inning with the bases loaded.

Back within four runs heading to the seventh, the T-Birds would see the Cougar offense once again come alive as BCCC would get two runs back in the top of the inning to go back up by a six-run margin. Limited to just two hits in the final three innings of play, CCCC would never be able to mount a significant chance at making a rally to get back in the game as Barton would go on to add two more runs in the eighth to make it an eight-run final margin of victory.

12 stranded base runners and seven strikeouts would loom large for the T-Birds as multiple missed opportunities on the offensive side would never allow CCCC to reclaim momentum after giving the lead back to Barton in the sixth. Of Cloud County's 10 hits, eight of the 10 would come from the first four batters in the lineup as Riley would lead CCCC with three while Olson and Parsons would record two each with Beauregard also adding a hit.

NJCAA Region VI Sub-Regional Tournament
Cloud County will be the number-six seed from the KJCCC West Division in next weekend's NJCAA Region VI Sub-Regional Tournament and will travel to the number-two seed from the KJCCC West Division as part of a four-team sub-regional round beginning Friday.

The two-seed from the west and host of the sub-regional round will be either Barton, Butler, or Seward County as the seeding for the number two, three, four, and eight seeds were still in play as of Saturday afternoon. The only other known foe that will be in the sub-regional tournament with the T-Birds at the time of this release is the seven-seed from the KJCCC East which will be Neosho County Community College.

Once the four NJCAA Region VI Sub-Regional Tournament brackets are finalized, a full release regarding next weekend's opening round of postseason play with previews will be posted to www.cloudtbirds.com. The preview will include brackets of all four Region VI sub-regional rounds as well as game times, ticket and fan information, and broadcasts links for all games that Cloud County will take part in.  

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