Hosting Labette Community College in the first round of the KJCCC/NJCAA Plains District Playoff Tournament, the Cloud County Community College baseball team defeated the Cardinals in the three-game series to advance to the second round in Salina.
In game one, the T-Birds won 15-6.
Cloud struck first in the bottom of the first inning, with a two-run home run by Joey Marino to take a 2-0 lead. Labette would score one run in the top of the second to keep the game close, before a 154-minute weather delay hit Lee Doyen Field.
Resuming the second inning after the delay, the T-birds picked the pace right up with another two-run home run, thanks to Lucas Laukkanen. In the third inning, things kept rolling as the deep ball gave the T-Birds five more runs to make it a 9-1 game, with a pair of home runs by Austin Coyle and Marino.
Labette’s offense came alive in the fifth, scoring five runs and keeping the Cardinals in the 9-6 game.
Cloud got back on the board with a Nolan Freund solo homer in the seventh to make it a 10-6 game, before closing the game in the bottom of the eighth with another two-run home run, this time by Kaden Budke, and picking up three more runs to take game one 15-6.
Cole Linton (7-1) earned the win with six runs allowed on nine hits with five strikeouts.
Freund scored three runs on three hits.
Marino scored two runs on four hits with six RBIs. Coyle, Laukkanen, and Noah Konings each scored two runs as well.
In game two, the T-Birds lost 6-5.
Labette scored first with a two-run home run in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. After five scoreless innings, the T-Birds finally got on the board in the sixth with two runs, and with runners on second and third base, had a weather delay due to lightning on the sunny day. After the delay, the T-Birds scored one more run to take a 3-2 lead. Another run in the seventh gave the T-Birds a 4-2 lead.
After a scoreless eighth inning, Labette exploded for four runs in the ninth to take the 6-4 lead. Cloud would score only one run in the ninth as time ran out, and the Cardinals took game two.
Stocton Timbrook (3-2) was given the loss.
Cam MaCleod scored three runs on two hits.
In game three, the T-Birds won 12-3.
Labette scored first, bringing in two runs in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. Cloud tied it up with two runs of its own in the third, before scoring two more runs in the fourth to take the lead. The Cardinals got the lead down to one with a run in the fifth, before Cloud scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to a two-run home run by Cam MaCleod, to take a 7-3 lead. Cloud shut the door in the sixth inning with five runs to take game three and the series.
Nolan Freund broke the record for most hits in a single season with his 95th hit, surpassing Demitri Shakotko, who set the record with 94 hits in the 2024 campaign.
