Behind 14-innings and 269 pitches from workhorse junior Karly Olson, the Central College softball team gutted out a 6-5, 3-1 sweep over rival Simpson to open Iowa Conference play yesterday afternoon. Leading 5-2 in the opener, the Dutch had Simpson down to its final out when Rachel Guessford hit a slow roller to second base. Paige Dickel misplayed the ball to keep the game going, and Simpson’s Abbie VanVleet swatted a three-run homer to tie the game. But Central responded with a leadoff triple from Kylie Olson to start the bottom of the seventh, and Sadie Baugher’s sacrifice fly plated the winner. Dutch Coach George Wares was asked afterwards how important it was to respond from the letdown in the top of the 7th and win it right away in the home half.

“You want my honest answer? I think it might have been our season. We had battled so much, and Paige Dickel was so down when she got that tough little hop. But that’s a play she knows she can make and needs to make. If we lose that game, I’m going to sit here and tell you we’re going to bounce back, but I can’t guarantee that. That would have been a devastating loss. But I think that also created a situation where it took a while for Simpson to get going in the second game.”

The Storm scored a run in the top of the first of game two, but couldn’t take advantage of several other scoring opportunities. Central finally broke through with back-to-back RBI singles by Paige Schreiner and Karly Olson, and added an insurance run in the sixth on an Abbie Voas hit. Olson was the star of the day, also having swatted a two-run homer in game one. She threw all 14 innings in the circle for Central, allowing 6 runs, only 3 earned, and striking out 14 while walking 5 and giving up 15 hits. The Dutch improve to 16-8 on the season, and start Iowa Conference play at 2-0, while the Storm drop to 21-6 and 0-2. Up next for Central is a home doubleheader against Loras at 1pm Saturday, while Simpson hosts Dubuque at two o’clock Saturday on KNIA.