Thunderbirds drop KWU JV, 10-2

MCPHERSON — In a game added to the schedule just 24 hours earlier, the Cloud County Community College baseball team knocked off the Kansas Wesleyan University junior varsity 10-2 Monday afternoon on the McPherson College campus.
Cloud County wrapped up a Jayhawk Conference West Division series at Pratt Community College on Sunday, and hit the road again the next day to take on the Coyotes.
“We wanted to play for a lot of reasons. Number one, we were down a lot of games from the weather and we are on spring break,” Cloud County coach Eric Gilliland said, “It was an opportunity to not only get on a nice day, but to get better since we don't have a field to practice on right now. Another major purpose of today was getting a lot of guys in. We haven't had a lot of non-conference games and we have had a lot of guys we have wanted to take a good, solid look at.”
The game was scoreless heading into the top of the fifth inning.
Connor Laux led off the inning with a walk and Davis Pratt walked.
Ramon Vingochea followed with a bunt single to load the bases.
A sacrifice fly by Kade Wallace got the first run home.
Grant Schmidt knocked in two runs with a double.
A two-run home run by Griffin Larsen, his third of the season, put Cloud County up 5-0.
Kansas Wesleyan scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it a 5-2 game.
Three runs in the top of the fifth inning gave the Thunderbirds an 8-2 advantage.
Vingochea was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Wallace followed with a single.
Wallace stole second base, and Vingochea scored on the throw.
Josh Laukkanen drove in Wallace with a sacrifice fly.
Alex Rice singled in top of the seventh inning to drive in Tylor Jans, and Cloud County led 9-2.
The T-Birds tacked on one run in the top of the ninth inning.
Jans doubled and scored on a double by Rice.
Cloud County used eight pitchers in the game.
Carson Marsh pitched two scoreless innings and gave up three hits.
Bradan Pierce, David Acosta, Jack Theilen, Billy Bechard, Connor Peterson, Jacob Dauer and Brayden Radcliffe pitched in relief.
“On the mound, it was  a whole staff day and we got some new guys in action,” Gilliland said, “I thought Billy, Brayden and Connor all had really good innings, while Jacob Dauer was also excellent. He is kind of got a niche, and when he throws strikes he can do a lot of good things for us. He's a guy we are going to go to in conference games, so we needed a day like this to get him back out there. Jack Theilen was another guy we have been wanting to get in ballgames and he was awesome today as well.”
Cloud County had 16 players get at bats in the game and finished with 11 hits.
Wallace and Rice had two hits each.
Rice, Schmidt and Larsen drove in two runs each.
The T-Birds are scheduled to open a Jayhawk West series against Seward County Thursday in Liberal.