T-Birds romp past Grizzlies, 15-1

WICHITA — Needing a win to continue their season, the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds got a solid pitching performance by sophomore Jackson Dietel and a big day at the plate by Kade Wallace in a 15-1 romp over Butler Community College in the elimination bracket of the Region VI/Central District playoffs Thursday morning at Eck Stadium.
Dietel pitched five innings to pick up the win for Cloud County. He gave up just one run on four hits, struck out two and walked one.
Wallace, a sophomore first baseman, had two hits in four at bats, including a grand slam home run, and drove in four runs in the must-win situation for the T-Birds.
Cloud County (34-23) was scheduled to play Hutchinson Community College at 1 p.m. today. The winner moves on and the loser is eliminated.
Hutchinson, the number one overall seed in the tournament, lost to Colby Community College, 12-8.
Johnson County Community College got past Fort Scott Community College 9-8 and Cowley College downed Barton Community College, 10-2.
“It feels good that we get to keep playing. Now, we've got some confidence to try to make a run on the back side,” Cloud County coach Eric Gilliland said, “I've said we're built for this tournament if we could get some confidence. We have a lot of pitching left, and I'm just really proud of our effort.”
Cloud County loaded the bases in the top of the first inning, and Grant Schmidt singled to drive in Ramon Vingochea.
Wallace followed with a grand slam to put the T-Birds up 5-0.
“Big swing by Kade. He's a guy who always gives us a solid at-bat. This time it just happened to leave the yard,” Gilliland said, “He ambushed a fastball, got it up in the air. The gaps are pretty deep here, but the wind was blowing out a little bit and he put a good swing on it to backspin it out of here.”
Cloud County extended the lead to 8-0 with three runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Conner Laux singled to drive in Alex Rice.
Dietel then hit a two-run home run.
Butler (39-19) scored its only run off Dietel in the bottom of the fourth.
Colby Deaville singled to knock in Austin Portner.
Cloud County made sure there would be no late rally by the Grizzlies by erupting for seven runs in the top of the sixth inning.
Clayton Loranger and Vingochea scored on a single by Laux.
A base hit by Wallace plated Dietel.
Davis Pratt tripled to drive in Wallace and Grant Schmidt.
Rice drove in Pratt and Griffin Larsen with a double.
“Timely hitting, man, it's contagious. Yesterday we didn't have it going, today we did,” Gilliland said.
Jacob Dauer pitched a perfect sixth inning for the T-Birds. He struck out one.
Cloud County banged out 12 hits.
Laux was 2-for-3 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Dietel had two hits in five at bats, drove in two runs and scored three.
Pratt had two hits and knocked in two runs.
Rice also drove in two runs.
Zach Bravo suffered the loss for Butler. He allowed eight runs, seven earned, on eight hits, struck out two and walked three in three and two-thirds innings.
Blake Rohm gave up two runs, struck out three and walked three in an inning and two-thirds.
Bennett Scherer allowed five runs on five hits, struck out one and walked two in one inning.