MIDDLETOWN — Ben Olson?s biting slider made his fastball look even faster and the Kelseyville High School staff ace picked a perfect time to throw his best game of the season as the Indians battered the Middletown Mustangs 13-3 in a North Central League I North varsity baseball game at Wes Martin Field in Middletown.
Kelseyville closes out the first half of its North schedule at 4-0 — three of those wins coming on the road against Fort Bragg (3-1), Willits (1-3) and now Middletown (2-2).
?I can?t tell you how huge that is,? Kelseyville coach Steve Olson said. ?Those are tough places to play and tough places to win.?
In a matchup of the county?s two winningest pitchers, round one went to Olson, 6-3, who scattered eight hits, struck out three and walked two.
?That was Ben?s best game,? said dad Steve. ?He was able to locate his offspeed pitches and that made his fastball even more effective. They (Mustangs) couldn?t sit on the fastball and Ben had them popping it up or grounding out most of the game.?
Apart from banging out 14 hits, nine of those coming during a 10-run top of the third inning, Olson said the Indians did all the ?little things? well, including running the bases, putting the ball into play against Middletown staff ace Kris Cole, and taking the ball the other way against Cole.
?And we did a good job on defense as well,? Olson said. ?I know they?re loaded with athletes, but we just played a solid game all the way around and that was big for us.?
Cole, 7-2, lost his second decision in five days. He did go the distance against Kelseyville, striking out eight and walking three, but he clearly didn?t have his best stuff, according to Middletown coach Mike Robertson.
?I don?t think he had his good fastball,? Robertson said.
Robertson was plenty impressed with Olson.
?He mixed it up real well, we helped him out a couple of times by chasing some pitches, and he took advantage of it,? Robertson said. ?I thought he handled us real easy.?
Olson?s two-out RBI single in the top of the first inning gave Kelseyville a 1-0 lead. Middletown came right back with two runs in the bottom of the inning on a Josh Gipson RBI single and a Dusty Hernandez sacrifice fly.
Middletown?s 2-1 lead didn?t last very long as Kelseyville paraded 14 batters to the plate in the top of third, scoring 10 times. Curt Lawson (3-for-5) had all three of his RBIs in the inning with a two-run double and RBI single. Olson (3-for-5) also had two hits in the inning.
Cole homered in the bottom of the third to make it 11-3 and the score would stay that way until the top of the seventh when the Indians pushed their final two runs across the plate.
?We?re in a good place (at 4-0), but the North is such that anybody could knock anybody else off on a given day, so we still have a lot of work to do,? Olson said.
Middletown now has no margin for error as far as the league race is concerned. The Mustangs need to run the table to get back into it.
?That?s the way I read it,? Robertson said. ?We need to run the table and get some help.?
Cole and Gipson each had two hits for the Mustangs, while Kyle Poloni, Jaime Chavez, Luke Woodward and Kirk Sills had two hits apiece for the Indians. Sills and Poloni also added two RBIs each.
Middletown is 11-4 on the season and Kelseyville is 10-3.
