Posted: Mar 15, 2014
Olson/King Handcuff Busters
Garden City Community College
(0-0)
2
Seward County Community College
(15-10)
3
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Garden City Community College | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 3 |
|
Seward County Community College | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
Garden City Community College
(0-0)
2
Seward County Community College
(16-10)
4
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Garden City Community College | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
|
Seward County Community College | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
The Seward County Saints got off to a much needed good start to their series Saturday afternoon at Brent Gould Field as they battled longtime Jayhawk West rival Garden City in a key conference double header. In game one it was a showdown on the mound between Seward's JB Olson and Garden City's JJ Benes. Olson got the best of the Busters in the end, going the distance in a 3-2 Seward County win in the opener. In game two Austin King followed Olson's lead, going 8 2/3 innings for Seward on the hill, pitching the Saints past the Busters 4-2 to give the guys in green the day one sweep over Garden.
Things didn't start so great for the Saints in game one of the series as the first batter of the game, Tyler Tucker launched a 1-0 pitch into the wind blowing out to right field and muscled it over the wall for his first career home run to put Garden City on the board early 1-0 in the 1st.
The Saints struck right back in the bottom of the inning as Jake Fuller led off the Seward 1st with a single and later scored after back to back singles from Brent Williams and Jordan Leinweber to tie the game at 1. Later in the inning a Garden City error allowed Leinweber to score and after an adventurous 1st inning it was Seward 2 and Garden 1.
Both starting pitchers settled in from there as JB Olson put up zeroes in the 2nd and the 3rd for Seward and Buster starter JJ Benes blanked the Saints in the 2nd and 3rd as well despite Seward putting runners on second and third with nobody out in the 3rd.
The Saints had another scoring chance in the 4th as Brandon Rix and Alex White singled to start the inning for Seward, but a fly out and a double play killed the rally and the score remained 2-1 Seward after 4.
The Saints stranding the runners in the 3rd and 4th came back to bite them in the 5th as Garden City scored a two out run on a single from Rocky DeSantis to knot the game at 2.
For the third straight inning, Seward saw their first two hitters of the inning reach in the bottom of the 5th as Reed Thompson was hit by a pitch and Williams collected his third hit of the game to put runners on first and third with nobody out. An RBI groundout from Leinweber broke the deadlock and put the Saints up 3-2 at the end of 5.
Olson responded to his team giving him the lead. The freshman righthander blew through the Garden City order in the 6th, retiring the side on just six pitches to keep the Saints in front 3-2.
Seward couldn't manage an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning but they wouldn't need it. Olson worked his second straight 1-2-3 inning in the 7th, getting revenge on Tucker to end the game to seal a 3-2 victory for the Saints.
Olson earned his fourth win of the season, going the distance, allowing 6 hits and 2 runs while striking out 7 Buster hitters. Williams finished 3 for 3 in the middle of the Saints order while Leinweber drove in 2 of the 3 Seward runs in the game.
In game two the Saints sent sophomore southpaw Austin King to the mound. King started where Olson left off in game one, striking out the side against the Busters in the 1st.
King continued his roll in the 2nd, striking out the first two hitters he saw before getting a first pitch groundout to keep the game scoreless.
Kevin Connolly tripled to start the Saints half of the 2nd and with one out a ground ball to third caught Connolly between third and home, but a bad throw to the plate allowed Connolly to score to give the Saints a 1-0 lead.
King sailed through the 3rd and 4th for Seward to keep the Saints on top 1-0 and his offense rewarded him with another run in the 4th as Connolly ripped his second triple of the game to right and Mason Marshall drove him home with a blooper to put Seward up 2-0.
The game quickly went to the 6th with the score still 2-0 Seward when Garden City finally broke through. Back to back one out singles put the Busters in business and a double behind the two hits got Garden on the board to make it 2-1 Seward. A safety squeeze by Garden third basemen Cole Dineen pushed another run across for the Busters to tie the game at 2.
Seward's half of the 6th nearly looked identical to Garden City's. Williams and Connolly singled with one out and Marshall came through again with a double to score both runs to give the Saints the lead back at 4-2.
King kept the momentum on Seward's side, retiring the Busters in order in the 7th on just seven pitches to take the Saints to stretch time up 4-2.
After a quick 7th for Seward on offense, King went back out for the 8th and worked around a one out hit batter, getting his ninth strikeout of the game to end the inning to keep the Saints up 4-2.
Seward was unable to add an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th as their offense went quiet, but they wouldn't need it.
Seward Head Coach Galen McSpadden sent King back out with a chance to finish things in the 9th and King battled to retire the first two hitters of the inning before allowing an infield single with two outs to bring the tying run to the plate for Garden. McSpadden went out and got the lefty, calling on relief specialist Adam Guay to finish things out and it didn't take him long to do just that. After throwing a first pitch strike to get ahead, Guay got a pop up to center to end Garden's chances to secure the 4-2 win for the Saints.
King went 8 2/3 innings for Seward to move to 4-0 on the year. He allowed 6 hits and 2 runs while striking out 9 Garden City hitters. On the season King has now struck out 36 opposing hitters without walking a single batter. Seward had 7 hits in the win, most of which coming from the middle of their order. Connolly finished 3 for 4 with a pair of triples and 3 runs scored while Marshall was 2 for 3 with 3 RBI's behind him.
With the two wins, the Saints improve to 16-10 overall on the year but more importantly, jump back to the top of the Jayhawk West standings at 7-3. Garden City drops to 12-11 overall after their third and fourth straight losses while falling back to even at 5-5 in Jayhawk West play.