T-Birds bounce back to sweep Broncbusters

GARDEN CITY — Bouncing back in a big way from a pair of Jayhawk Conference West Division home losses to Garden City on Thursday, the Cloud County Community College baseball team snapped a five-game losing streak by thumping the Broncbusters twice on Saturday.
Cloud County dropped the first two games of the four-game series, but pummeled Garden City 22-2 in the first game of the twinbill Saturday, and followed that up with a 12-7 victory in the second game.
“What a difference a day makes,” Cloud County coach Eric Gilliland said, “It was a pretty good effort all the way around from the guys. I thought we played exceptionally well, took advantage of some mistakes by Garden City, and I am really happy with how we responded.”
Cloud County, now 29-20 overall, is currently tied for third place in the Jayhawk West with Colby Community College.
The Thunderbirds finish up the regular season with a four-game series against conference leading Hutchinson Community College (20-8).
Cloud County has surpassed its win total from last year. The 29 wins are the most by the T-Birds since 2002.
“This is a team that has experienced a lot. We have only played eight of our 49 games at home. But adversity makes you go one way or the other. Today, these guys showed they still have fight left in them.”
Cloud County took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning in game one against Garden City.
A six-run third innings gave the T-Birds a 10-0 advantage.
Racking up nine runs in the fourth inning, Cloud County led 19-0.
The T-Birds added three runs in the top of the fifth inning.
Garden City scored its only two runs off of freshman Josh Laukkanen in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The game ended after five innings.
Laukkanen (4-1) gave up two runs, one earned, on four hits, struck out three and walked two in pitching all five innings.
“Josh was very good and did a nice job of keeping hitters off balance,” Gilliland said, “It's not easy to have those long breaks between innings, but he did a nice job of coming right back after we had scored to throw up zeroes.”
Cloud County scored 22 runs on 10 hits and drew 10 walks.
Tyler Jans had two hits in four at bats and drove in five runs for the T-Birds. He also scored three runs.
Clayton Loranger drove in three runs.
Connor Laux and Ramon Vingochea knocked in two runs each.
“It was just really good, quality at-bats up and down the lineup in that first game,” Gilliland said, “We cut down the strikeouts. We struck out 11 times Thursday with the wind blowing in, but we shuffled the lineup and continued to grind out at-bats one after another. The guys played with the right mindset and with a lot of confidence today.”
The second game of the doubleheader was scoreless through two innings.
Each team scored a run in the third inning.
Cloud County took control with five runs in the top of the fourth inning to go up 6-1.
Jackson Dietel led off with a single. Davis Pratt singled with one out and Jans walked to load the bases.
A base hit by Griffin Larsen got the first run home.
Vingochea followed with a two-run double. He was 4-for-4 at the plate, drove in two runs and scored two.
Alex Rice singled home a run.
Laux knocked in Vingochea with a base hit. He had four hits in five at-bats and drove in three runs.
A solo home run by Jans in the top of the fifth inning made it a 7-1 game.
Garden City scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to close the gap to 7-4.
Pushing across four runs in the sixth inning the T-Birds led 11-4.
The Broncbusters picked up two runs in the seven inning.
Each team scored a run in the eighth.
Dietel pitched the first seven innings to get the win. He gave up six runs, four earned, on seven hits, struck out four and walked two.
Corben Peters allowed one run on two hits and struck out one in two innings.
The T-Birds will host eighth-ranked Cowley College for a single nine-inning game on Tuesday, and then the final conference series at Hutchinson on Thursday.