Olson's Gem Salvages Split For Saints

Seward County ace and University of Oklahoma signee JB Olson was admittedly not sharp in his first two outings of his 2015 sophomore season.  His last two starts however, including a Friday toeing of the rubber against Odessa have been different cases.  Olson tossed his second straight complete game Friday, beating Odessa 6-2 in game one of the Saints twinbill with the Wranglers before Odessa roared back with a 13-6 win in game two to split the doubleheader with Seward. 

Game one between Seward and Odessa began as a good old fashioned pitcher's duel between the Saints JB Olson and the Wranglers Jake Hulsey.  There was no score between the two after 2 ½ swift innings of action and it was Odessa that cracked the board first in the bottom half of the 3^rd inning as they used a Seward error to grab a 1-0 lead. 

It remained a 1-0 game into the 5^th when a once quiet Seward lineup finally woke up, and in a big way.  A pair of Saints were hit by pitches and a Wrangler error loaded the bases with one out in the inning.  Alex White then drove home a pair of runs to put the Saints on top and White himself scored on an RBI single from Brandon Rix to put Seward up 3-1.  The Saints weren't done there as with two outs in the inning Alec Isaac walked and Logan Nethercot singled two more runs home to all of a sudden put the Saints up 5-1. 

Olson blew through the Wrangler order in the 5^th to keep it a 5-1 game and the Saints offense added a run in the top half of the 6^th inning on a White triple to go up 6-1. 

It was the Saints right hander once again controlling the pace in the bottom half of the 6^th as Olson needed just four pitches to sit Odessa down, keeping it a 6-1 Saints advantage. 

Odessa pushed a run across in their final at bats after a leadoff double, but it was too little too late as the Olson slammed the door and the Saints picked up the 6-2 victory. 

Olson allowed just 5 hits in the complete game win, striking out 3 without walking a batter for his second straight start.  Seward outhit Odessa 9-5 in the opener, getting 2 hits apiece from Rix and Isaac and a 2 RBI game from Nethercot in the win.  

SEWARD COUNTY/ODESSA GAME ONE BOX SCORE

Game two of the doubleheader started out like another pitcher's duel as Odessa had the game's only run through two innings to take an early 1-0 lead. 

All of that changed though in the bottom half of the 3^rd inning when the Wranglers blew the game open, watching their first five hitters of the inning reach base to score two runs and a two out home run plate three more to open their lead to 6-0. 

The Saints answered right back in their next at bats, getting a leadoff double from White before putting together some two out magic with a two RBI triple from Justin Graff-Rowe and then back to back RBI singles from Dillon Drury and Josh Nicol to cut the Odessa lead to 6-4.  Still with two outs in the inning, Jared Ledbetter kept the train rolling for the Saints, smashing an RBI triple to the gap to score Nicol to make it a one run game at 6-5. 

Both teams were quiet in their next at bats, but Odessa kept the scoring going in the bottom of the 5^th, getting three runs on four hits including their third home run of the game to push their lead back to 9-5. 

Odessa continued to pile onto their lead in the 6^th, getting two more runs, both with two outs to take an 11-5 advantage on the Saints. 

A two run home run by the Wranglers in the 7^th made it a 13-5 game and Seward's only response was a lone tally in the 9^th as the game finished at 13-6 in favor of Odessa. 

The Saints were outhit 12-10 in the contest while Odessa finished the game with 4 home runs.  Brent Williams and Justin Graff-Rowe each had 2 hits for the Saints in the loss, the pair also combined for 3 RBI's.  Hayden Howard was collared with the loss for Seward, lasting just 4 2/3 innings, allowing 8 hits and 9 runs to fall to 1-1 on the year. 

SEWARD COUNTY/ODESSA GAME TWO BOX SCORE

Seward moves to 4-5 with the split while Odessa is now 5-5.  The Saints will continue a four game swing on Saturday when they make the short trip to Midland to play the Chaps in a double header starting at 12.