Saints Pound Dragons On Day One

The Seward County Saints and Hutchinson Blue Dragons headed into their Jayhawk West doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Brent Gould Field in Liberal on opposite ends of the Jayhawk West scale as Hutchinson entered in 1^st place at 4-0 and Seward in 7^th at 3-5.  That didn't seem to matter much to the guys in green however as Seward took the Dragons to the whipping shed on day one of their series, beating them 7-3 in the opener before a 11-3 shellacking in game two to sweep the twinbill. 

The Saints wasted no time in getting going Saturday afternoon on a breezy day at Brent Gould Field in Liberal.  Seward scored twice in the 1^st inning, getting an RBI single from Brandon Rix and another run on a wild pitch to jump on top 2-0. 

Saints starter JB Olson held Hutchinson without a hit through three innings and Seward tacked on a run to their lead in the bottom half of the 3^rd inning, using a single from Logan Nethercot and a double from Brent Williams to set up an RBI groundout from Rix to put them up 3-0. 

Hutchinson picked up their first hit of the game in the top half of the 4^th on a bunt single, but Olson didn't let that faze him and kept the Dragons off the board and the Saints up 3-0. 

A two out double finally got Hutchinson on the board in the 5^th, but Olson limited the damage to one and kept it a 3-1 game in favor of the Saints. 

The Saints offense got the run back and then some in the bottom half of the inning as Justin Graff-Rowe singled home a run with two outs in the frame and Dillon Drury brought home a pair with a knock to stretch the Seward lead to 6-1. 

The extra runs came in handy as the Dragons mounted their first real threat against Olson in the 6^th, scoring twice on three hits to make it a 6-3 game.

Seward added an insurance run in their half of the 6^th on an RBI double from Williams to make it 7-3 and that is where it would end as Olson induced a double play ball to put the clamps on the Dragons last breath of life in the 7^th to give the Saints a 7-3 win. 

The Saints pounded out 13 hits in the opener against Dragon starter Kyle Cantu and company.  Williams led the way with a 3 for 4 game with a pair of doubles while Nethercot and Graff-Rowe each had 2 hits.  Olson improved to 3-3 on the season with the victory on the mound, going the distance for the fifth straight start, allowing 7 hits and 3 runs while striking out a pair. 

SEWARD COUNTY/HUTCHINSON GAME ONE BOX SCORE

The Saints were back at it early in game two of the twinbill, scoring a 1^st inning run on a leadoff single from Alex White and a one out double from Williams to make it 1-0. 

Seward opened their lead to 4-0 in the 2^nd as they batted around and got RBI singles from Rix and White to highlight a three run frame. 

Hutchinson scored an unearned run off of Saints starter Hayden Howard in the 3^rd, but the Saints got it right back plus another run as Brandon Urquizo ripped an RBI double and White lifted a sac fly in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-1. 

Howard worked through the 4^th inning on just nine pitches and worked out of trouble in the 5^th to keep it a 6-1 game.

It was another zero for Howard and the Saints defense in the 6^th and the offense blew the game wide open in the bottom half of the inning.  With one out in the inning, five straight Saints reached base including RBI singles from Rix and Drury to make it an 8-1 game.  They didn't stop there, getting two more runs with two outs as Nethercot drilled a single to center to make it 10-1. 

Hutchinson picked up lone tallies in the 7^th and the 9^th while Seward added a run in the 8^th as the Saints wrapped up an 11-3 win.

The Saints finished with 17 hits against the Dragons, with six different players recording multi-hit games.  White, Rix, and Nethercot each had 3 hits and 2 RBI's in the win while Urquizo had 2 hits and 2 RBI's for the Saints.  Hayden Howard went 8 solid innings for Seward, allowing 5 hits and 2 unearned runs to improve to 2-1 on the season. 

SEWARD COUNTY/HUTCHINSON GAME TWO BOX SCORE

The Saints have now won three straight Jayhawk West games to improve to 9-12 overall and 5-5 in league action. Hutchinson watches their eight game winning streak snapped as they fall to 12-5 on the year and drop their first to Jayhawk West games to move to 4-2. 

The Saints and Dragons will hook up once again on Sunday at 1:00 to wrap up their four game set at Brent Gould Field.