T-Birds split with Highland
Banging out 14 hits, the Cloud County Community College baseball team bounced back from a 2-1 loss in the opening game to defeat Highland Community College 15-2 in the second game of a doubleheader on April 4 at the Concordia Sports Complex.
Two Highland pitchers limited Cloud County to just one run on four hits in game one of the twinbill.
The Thunderbirds got the offense rolling in game two.
Sending 10 batters to the plate, Cloud County put up six runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Cam MaCleod singled home TJ Coats with the first run.
Easton Mould scored the second run on a throwing error.
A double by Gavin Roy got MaCleod home.
Jakob Poturnak knocked in Roy and Landon Meyer with a single.
Batting for the second time in the inning, Coats doubled and drove in Demitri Shakotko.
Cloud County upped the lead to 10-0 with four runs in the fourth inning.
Nolan Freund tripled home two runs and scored on a double by Coats.
Coats got home on a base hit by Mould.
Austin Coyle singled to drive in Meyer in the fifth inning, and Cloud County led 11-0.
Meyer drove in two runs with a single and scored on an error in the sixth inning to make it a 15-2 game.
Highland scored its two runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Coats pitched five and two-thirds scoreless innings to get the win. He gave up three hits, struck out six and walked two. He was also 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs batted in and two runs scored.
Meyer had two hits, drove in two runs and scored three.
Freund drove in two runs.
Shakotko and Poturnak had two hits each.
Ethan Price allowed one hit, struck out one and walked one in one inning.
Jack Macintosh worked one inning and surrendered two runs, one earned, on one hit, struck out two and walked one.
In the first game of the doubleheader, Roy scored a run on an error in the bottom of the first inning to put Cloud County up 1-0.
The T-Birds were then shut out over the final two innings.
Highland got a two-run triple by Connor Titus in the third inning that proved to be the difference.
Kevin Mannell suffered his first loss of the season. He gave up two runs on one hit, struck out five and walked three in three innings.
John Klus pitched four shutout innings. He allowed just one hit, struck out five and walked one.
Cloud County out-slugged the McPherson College junior varsity 12-9 in a road game on April 3.
The T-Birds jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
McPherson responded with three runs in the bottom of the first.
A run in the top of the third put Cloud County up 5-3.
The Bulldogs scored two runs in the bottom of the third, two in the fourth and two in the fifth to take the lead at 9-5.
Cloud County rallied with four runs in the seventh inning and three in the eighth to pull out the victory.
Myles Chamberlain, the third Cloud County pitcher used, got the win by pitching four and a third scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, struck out five and walked one.
Roy was 4-for-5 at the plate and scored three runs.
Poturnak had three hits.
Freund had two hits and drove in two runs and Meyer knocked in two runs.