Evan Olesen threw a no-hitter as the Jackson Bulls won a home game for the second straight night, beating Heron Lake 4-0 Wednesday at Wacker Field. The Bulls defeated Lamberton 8-3 in a nonleague game Tuesday.
Olesen walked two and struck out 17 for Jackson on Wednesday.
“Any win in the First Nite League is a big win,” said Jackson Manager Scott Bahr. “Heron Lake played us tough in the first game of the year and regardless of their record, always plays us tough. It was a big game for them, and Evan came in tough. He had control, he mixed his speeds up and everything was really good.”
The Bulls were limited to three hits in the game but scored two runs in the first and two in the fourth.
“To be honest it was such a competitive game, and I was concentrating on some strategy to win the game and I didn’t realize it was a no-hitter,” Bahr admitted. “After seven innings I was ready to make some changes and the guys had to break the unwritten rule and said ‘Scott, what are you thinking,?’ and I said well, I kind of want to make a change. And they said, ‘no, we’ve got a situation going on here.’
“I figured it out in a hurry, and we stayed with him, and he was able to complete it. There was a borderline situation in the eighth. There was a ground ball to Easton at short. I thought the ball was in front of him between his shoulders. I thought if he picks it up clean, he throws the guy out, but it was called an error. Either way, it doesn’t take anything away from what Evan did. He pitched a gem.”
Bahr was also quick to praise Heron Lake pitcher Logan Knutson, who pitched well for the Lakers in the loss.
“On the other side, Logan Knutson was dang near as good,” Bahr said. “Logan went the distance against us and we only had three hits. We scored four runs and that’s been the story of our year that we are able to score runs without getting a lot of hits.
“We did it with our legs. We stole a lot of bases, we went first to third, we scored from second. We got thrown out twice at home too. But Logan was really good. He had three different pitches that he threw for strikes and kept us off balance all day. He could have easily won but Evan was really dominant and wasn’t going to let them score.”
Recording hits for Jackson were Bahr, Chris Gumto and Carter Snyder.
In the win over the Long Sox the previous night, Bahr had five hits including a double.
The Bulls had back-to-back pinch-hit extra base hits to give them a cushion in the eighth inning as Blaise Jacobsen doubled, followed by a home run by Lucas Gardner.
Ben Spaeth had a double and three runs batted in and Shad Wacker also doubled. Also getting hits were Gumto, Carter Snyder and Seth Busch.
Trace Michelson started on the mound for Jackson and went five innings to pick up the win. He walked one and struck out four.
Kevin Holm, Snyder, Landon Vaske and Will Larson pitched one inning apiece.
Jackson will travel to Hadley for a 5 p.m. game Sunday.