BEATRICE, Neb. — The Cloud County Community College baseball team fell by a 6-3 final Tuesday afternoon in Beatrice to Southeast Community College.
Cloud County (16-10 overall) had marked improvements on the mound and defensively from its pair of Sunday losses to Colby Community College, but were unable to get the big break or big hit with runners in scoring position, finishing with six left on base Tuesday.
“We didn’t get timely hits,” said Cloud County head coach, Eric Gilliland. “I thought we cleaned things up and played better than we did last weekend overall. But Southeast was able to get timely hits and played a little bit better baseball than us.”
Southeast (6-14 overall) held a 4-1 lead heading to the top of the sixth inning before the T-Birds were able to get after the Storms’ starter, Rece Snyder.
Cloud County plated its second run of the game when freshman Kade Wallace led off the inning with a double and came around to score two batters later on an RBI grounder by sophomore Grant Schmidt, who reached base safely on a Southeast error.
The T-Birds would put runners on the corners with two outs, chasing Snyder after 5.2 innings, with pinch hitter Davis Pratt at the plate.
Pratt lined the third pitch he saw from reliever Gavin Gregg right back up the middle for what would have been a run-scoring single, but the ball glanced off Greg, who was able to recover just in time and flip to first base for a controversial third out to squash the T-Birds’ rally.
“There were probably 6-7 plays in that game that could have gone one way or the other and had an impact on runs crossing the plate, including that play with Davis at first,” Gilliland said. “We just need to continue controlling what we can control and I thought today was better in that regard.”
The Storm were able to add two insurance runs in the home-half of the seventh and, despite an RBI double from redshirt freshman Ramon Vingochea in the eighth, the T-Birds were unable to mount a comeback over the final two innings.
Schmidt and fellow sophomore Jackson Dietel each finished 2-for-4 to lead the T-Birds, while Vingochea, Wallace and freshman Clayton Loranger each recorded one hit to round out the Cloud County offense.
“Both those guys are in a pretty good rhythm right now and when they both hit, we have a chance to be pretty good,” Gilliland said. “The problem (Tuesday) was when didn’t have many guys on. The hits came with nobody on and out table setters struggled to get on base today. We’re not firing on all cylinders right now, but I don’t think we’re too far off.”
On the mound, sophomore right-hander Corben Peters got the start and worked a career-long 4.1 innings, striking out five.
Freshman reliever Carson Marsh worked 2.1 innings, allowing just a run on four hits with two strikeouts, and sophomore Jack Theilen extended his scoreless inning streak to eight after throwing a spotless 1.1 innings on Tuesday with one punchout.
Up next for Cloud County will be a non-conference, road doubleheader against Hastings College JV set for 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday evening at Duncan Field.