CONCORDIA – Not much would go wrong for the Cloud County Community College baseball team in their 2021 home opener as the T-Birds would put up 32 total runs to sweep Marshalltown Community College by scores of 14-4 and 18-5 in a pair of seven-inning games at Lee Doyen Field in Concordia on Friday.
Winners of four of their past five, Cloud County moves one game above .500 for the first time this season to improve to 4-3 overall while the Tigers drop their first two games of the season to fall to 0-2 overall.
Game one
The T-Birds wouldn't waste much time in putting the game out of reach early as a three-run bottom of the first inning would be overshadowed by a monster 11-run second from CCCC to produce all the offense they would need for the game. Cloud County's three-runs in the first would come courtesy of an Ian Riley two-out double to score Jaden Parsons before Williams Camacho-Soto would deliver with a two-run home run to left center field as the three-runs would be only a preview of things to come.
CCCC would see their first five batters of the second safely reach base as Noah Olson would drive in a pair of runs with a triple to left center field before a bunt single by Parsons would make things 6-0. The offensive power would continue with two outs as a fielding error would allow both Kayden Beauregard and Parsons to score and open the floodgates as the T-Birds would go on to score six more runs in the inning while sending eight more batters to the plate to finish the inning with 11 runs on six hits.
With the massive lead in order, Cloud County would turn things over to their pitching staff as CCCC would get 13 strikeouts from three pitchers while limiting the Tigers to just two hits in the first six innings before allowing four runs in the seventh.
Cloud County would get 11 total hits in the game and would be led by three-for-three performances from both Parsons and Camacho-Soto as the two would combine to drive in five runs and score five times. The other six hits would come courtesy of six different CCCC players, with Olson, Riley, and Brock Hillebert all driving in a pair of runs.
Earning his second win of the year on the mound would be freshman Kolby Dougan as the Topeka, Kansas native would throw two innings and allow just two hits while striking out four. Jayden Payne would make his T-Bird debut to strike out seven in three hitless innings of work while Phillip Cude and Josh Hain would close out the contest by combining to throw the final two innings of action.
Game two
After giving up an unearned run in the top of the first, Cloud County would get off to another quick start by scoring three runs in the bottom of the first on back-to-back extra-base hits from Riley and Camacho-Soto to go up 3-1 after an inning of action. The T-Birds would then add to their lead with a three-spot in the bottom of the second to go up 6-1 before seeing Marshalltown start to come alive offensively with a two-run home run in the top of the third.
A big inning in the bottom of the third for CCCC would see a throwing error to lead off the inning lead to four unearned runs as part of a five-run inning as Cloud County would put things into cruise control up 11-3 with four of the five runs coming with two outs.
The long ball would be working again for Marshalltown in the top of the fifth as back-to-back home runs for the Tigers would give MCC a quick boost of momentum, but it would be short lived as Cloud County would get a run back on a Camacho-Soto BI single to score Riley as part of a two-out rally to lead 12-5. CCCC would go on to tack on six more runs in the bottom of the sixth as errors once again would come back to haunt Marshalltown with the T-Birds taking advantage of five walks and three wild pitches to set a new season-high in runs scored.
Continuing his strong home debut would be Camacho-Soto with a three-for-four performance at the plate while driving in three runs to join Riley who went a perfect four-for-four in game two while driving in four runs. CCCC would finish the contest with 16 hits and six walks as eight different players for Cloud County would record at least one hit.
Matching the staff output from game one, the T-Birds would get 13 strikeouts from the trio of Wilde (5), Carl Aikman (3), and Liam Bates (5) as Aikman would get his first win of the year after throwing two innings in relief.
--cloudtbirds.com--