Thunderbirds sweep doubleheader from Saints

MCPHERSON — The Cloud County Community College baseball team continued its seemingly never-ending road trip by sweeping a Jayhawk Conference West Division doubleheader from Seward County Community College Sunday at McPherson College.
Cloud County, now 13-6 overall, has played all 19 of its games so far this season away from home because of wet field conditions.
The Thunderbirds knocked off Seward County 11-8 and 6-4 on Sunday to move to 6-2 in conference play. They are tied for first place in the West with Butler Community College.
Cloud County and Seward County split the first two games of the four-game series on Friday in Liberal.
The T-Birds pounded out a 16-5 win in the first game, but the Saints rallied for a 6-5 win in the nightcap.
“Seward is a good team, so to take a series from them you obviously have to be doing things right,” Cloud County coach Eric Gilliland said, “We really valued 90 feet, played pretty well defensively for the most part and had a real solid weekend.”
Cloud County grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, but Seward County tied it 1-1 with a run in the top of the third.
Grinding out six runs in the bottom of the third inning, the T-Birds went up 7-1.
Alex Rice had a two-run single in the inning.
Davis Pratt knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Two runs in the fourth inning and three in the top of the fifth pulled the Saints within a run, 7-6.
A solo home run by Connor Laux gave Cloud County an 8-6 advantage.
Seward County's Benny Ayala hit a two-run home run in the top of the sixth inning, and the game was tied at 8-8.
Grant Schmidt homered with Jackson Dietel and Ramon Vingochea aboard in the bottom of the sixth to put the T-Birds on top to stay, 11-8.
“I've talked before that I thought Grant had some tough luck to start the year, and it seems to be evening out for him a little bit now,” Gilliland said, “We were having a hard time stopping Seward County at that point in time, so that was a big time spot for Grant to come through and give us three insurance runs.”
Trey Asher pitched a scoreless seventh inning to get the win. He gave up two hits in two innings.
Tylor Jans worked the first four innings and gave up five runs, four earned on six hits. He struck out six and walked six.
Corben Peters allowed three runs on three hits in one inning. He walked one.
Cloud County scored 11 runs on 10 hits.
Schmidt had two hits in three at bats, drove in three runs and scored three.
Laux was 2-for-2 at the plate with two runs batted in.
Rice had two hits and knocked in two runs.
Dietel was 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Cloud County never trailed in the second game.
The T-Birds broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom of the third inning.
Four runs in the fourth inning gave Cloud County a 6-0 cushion.
Vingochea knocked in two runs with a single.
Seward County, 11-11 overall and 4-4 in conference play, scored three runs in the seventh inning and one in the eighth to make it 6-4.
Dietel pitched eight innings to get the win and improve to 4-0 this season. He gave up four runs on nine hits, struck out seven and walked one.
Joseph Karall worked a scoreless ninth inning to get the save. He struck out one and walked one.
Vingochea had four hits in five at bats, drove in two runs and scored two.
Clayton Loranger was 3-for-5.
Blake Manuel had two hits in four at bats.
Cloud County used two big innings to roll past Seward County 16-5 in the first game on Friday.
Dietel and Schmidt each homered in a six-run seventh inning.
Scoring seven runs in the third inning, the T-Birds led 14-3 and were never challenged after that.
Dietel was 6-for-9 at the plate in the two games with two home runs and seven runs batted in. He was 4-for-4 and drove in six runs in that first game.
“Jackson has been hitting a lot of balls hard, and I don't think his batting average was real indicative of how his at-bats had gone throughout the year,” Gilliland said, “The one thing he did do today that he hadn't done was elevate the ball. For a guy who hits with so much power he hits a lot of line drives and ground balls. Today he elevated the ball. He's a confident player and really trusts his abilities.”
Austen Seidel pitched seven innings to get the win.
Schmidt had three hits in four at bats and knocked in three runs.
Laux had three hits in three at bats and drove in three runs.
Clayton Loranger was 3-for-3, drove in two runs and scored four.
Pratt was 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
Cloud County put up two runs in the second inning, one in the third and one in the top of the fourth to grab a 4-0 lead in the second game.
Seward County answered with one run in the bottom of the fifth and three in the sixth to pull even at 4-4.
Wallace scored on a two-out single by Pratt in the top of the seventh inning to put Cloud County back on top, 5-4.
Two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Saints a 6-5 advantage.
Cloud County was shut out over the final two innings.
Josh Laukkanen started for the T-Birds. He gave up four runs on 10 hits in five and two-thirds innings and struck out four.
Braden Pierce allowed three runs on two hits, struck out two and walked two in an inning and two-thirds in taking the loss.
Karall worked two-thirds of an inning.
The T-Birds finished with 11 hits.
Dietel and Loranger had two hits each.
Pratt drove in two runs.
Cloud County was scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Kansas Wesleyan University junior varsity in Salina today.