O’Dell’s Pitching Leads Saint Stephen’s To 2-1 Victory

Saint Stephens senior Sam O’Dell struck out nine Bradenton Christian Panthers across his seven innings of work in a 2-1 Falcons victory on Thursday.

Throwing a staggering 74% of his pitches for strikes, O’Dell was also brilliant when it came to starting at-bats out on the right foot, as he recorded first-pitch strikes against 24 of the 29 men that came to the plate against him. Only one Falcon hitter, opposing starting pitcher Jake Lister, was able to get on base twice against the dominating senior starter. For O’Dell and the Panthers, this was a huge win as it brings their record on the young season to 5-6.

Saint Stephens got on the board in the top of the third inning after freshman Mike Madigan, who had reached base via a fielder’s choice earlier in the inning, scored on a wild pitch with two outs. Run number two came by way of O’Dell, who scored on a fourth-inning sacrifice from designated hitter Caleb Eyre.

Starting for Bradenton Christian and, unfortunately, taking the tough-luck loss was Jake Lister. Though Lister gave up two runs, the lefty senior struck out five in his four innings of work and threw first-pitch strikes to ten of the sixteen men that faced him. Reliever AJ Schewe threw three near-perfect innings in relief, striking out two and allowing a lone Falcon to reach base by way of an error.

Bradenton Christian scored its lone run in the seventh inning with a two-out RBI single from Owen Thomas,. But O’Dell would lock things down and end the game with a strikeout.

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