The Fort Scott Community College Greyhounds baseball team began the season with a three-game series over the weekend, taking two of the three games against Cloud County Community College.

“I was happy with our effort,” coach John Hill III said, adding opening weekend shows how the team would do against an opponent after months of preparation. “I thought we had a very good opening weekend.”

The ‘Hounds took advantage of the wind during the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, cruising to a 12-2 win over the Thunderbirds, with home runs from Mackay Williams and Ben McConnell. FSCC was again leading, 3-0, in the third inning of game two before the team had their only bad six innings of the weekend, according to Hill.

With 16 walks, four hit batters and four errors, the ‘Hounds would go on to lose that game, 19-9. But Hill said he was pleased the team was able to turn that around for Sunday’s game, taking a 5-2 win.

“We played a clean game Sunday,” Hill said, saying they were forced to play small ball because of the complete change in wind direction, this time blowing in from the outfield.

Hill said the weekend of competitive games and the extremes in weather, with both warm and cool temperatures as well as the different wind directions, gave the ‘Hounds a good test to begin the season. The ‘Hounds play two more home doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday, and Hill said they look forward to what he hopes will be a successful season.

“As long as we can stay away from injuries, I think we’ll have a good season,” Hill said, though he added they have already lost a couple key players to season-ending injuries.

Hill is in his ninth season of coaching and has led the team to six consecutive seasons of 30 or more wins, tying the franchise record of total 30-win seasons. The remainder of the Greyhounds’ 2017 season schedule can be found at the following link: http://www.fsgreyhounds.com/sports/bsb/2016-17/schedule.