Saints Stay Hot with Sweep at Cloud

The Seward County Saints out slugged Cloud to wpin game one 11-6 and used pitching and small ball to win game two 2-1. The Saints have won 11 of the last 12.

In game one, JB Olson didn’t have his "A" game but still fought threw the Thunderbird lineup for his eighth complete game. The Saints scored three in the first as Dillon Drury doubled to right center with two outs to score two. Justin Graff-Rowe grounded a single to right to make it 3-0. SC added four in the second. After Tony Dorado’s double short hopping the wall in left, Logan Nethercot ripped an RBI double inside the third base bag. Brandon Urquizo lined a pitch to center which took a bad hop over the center fielder’s head and allowed Urquizo to circle the bases for an inside the park three run homer to make it 7-0. Cloud scored a run in the third but the Saints turned double plays in each of the first three innings. The Saints added an eighth run in the fourth thanks to a T-Bird error. CCC scored two in the fourth to make it 8-3. Nethercot led off the fifth with a single and advanced two bases in an error. Alex White’s sac fly got him home. Brandon Rix singled home another run to make it 10-3. Cloud scored two more in the bottom of the inning as Jacob Wells homered over the left field wall. Rix added insurance in the sixth with another RbI single. The last three Cloud runs were unearned. Seward out hit Cloud 17-11. Rix was 4-4 and Urquizo was 3-5 and Nethercot was 3-4. Olson is 7-3 and has 14 career wins at SCCC.

Hayden Howard took the ball in game two going eight strong innings for the win while Nathan Dockery worked the ninth for the save. Seward loaded the bases with one out in the first and scored one run thanks to a Cloud error. Cloud’s Alixon Herrera hit a homer to left in the sixth to tie it. The wind was blowing out to left about 30 miles per hour. The T-Birds threatened in the eighth with the lead off man on first and a 2-0 count. But Cloud’s bunt was slickly fielded by Brandon Rix beginning a 5-4-3 double play. Graff-Rowe led off the ninth with a single. Jared Ledbetter bunted him to second. With two outs, white hit a ground ball to deep short and Graff-Rowe scored from second.

Seward is 23-18 and 13-9 in the Jayhawk West and Cloud is 16-27 and 8-18 in the conference. The teams clash again Sunday at 1 in Concordia on 1270 and kscbnews.net.