FREEWAY LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Olsen Playing a Big Numbers Game

Donald Christian (D.C.) Olsen, Fullerton High School’s slugging catcher, continued to pile up impressive numbers Friday during a 17-4 Freeway League victory over Sonora.

Olsen led a 16-hit attack with two doubles and a single, raising his county-leading batting average to .607. He drove in his 37th run of the season, marking the 22nd time in 23 games he has driven home at least one run.

Fullerton (13-10, 6-7 in league) hit four home runs off four Sonora pitchers, but Olsen failed to hit a homer for the third consecutive game and remains tied with Andy Ruscitto for the county’s single-season mark at 12.

Olsen’s eye-opening statistics include 41 runs scored and 13 doubles--four in two games against Sonora this week. He will likely break county marks for batting average (.585, Steve Evans, Anaheim, 1980) and hits (51, Robbie Katzaroff, Los Alamitos, 1985) with two games remaining.

“I’ve never seen anybody in any league in high school baseball have a year like D.C. Olsen is having,” said Sonora Coach John Link. “You can’t play any better than he has this year. On Wednesday, we threw him curveballs low and away and he hit two doubles. Today, we threw fastballs up and in and he gets two more doubles. The guy is amazing.”

Many among the crowd that lined Fullerton’s bandbox field were hoping to see Olsen break the county’s home run record, and the junior admitted he was swinging for the fences in his third at-bat.

“I’m trying not to think homers because you tend to over-swing when you go for the fences,” he said. “But my third time up, I was going for the record. I have a simple way of hitting: See the ball, hit the ball.”

Some have suggested Olsen’s numbers are helped by Fullerton’s cozy ballpark, but his coach, Dolf Hess, said there’s no short-changing his catcher’s heroics.

“When I got the job here in October, I heard Fullerton always had great hitters and then I looked at this field and could see how they hit so well,” Hess said. “But I’ve coached on the high school, junior college and college level for the past nine years and have seen only one player (Rob Townsend, Cal State Long Beach) have a year like D.C., and he was a collegiate All-American.”

First baseman Chris Rubal, left fielder Ladd Brunner, center fielder Bobby Patel and winning pitcher Rene Arias (7-3) all hit home runs with a strong wind blowing out at Fullerton.

In other league games:

Troy 2, La Habra 1 (10 innings)-- After Troy’s Ryan Russell walked to lead off the top of the 10th inning, Tim Hostetler missed a bunt sign but doubled to right-center to score Russell for the winning run. Tom Juarez pitched 10 innings and allowed five hits for La Habra. Troy (13-8, 10-3) has nine consecutive league victories.

Sunny Hills 6, Buena Park 0--Chris Looney (4-1) pitched a one-hitter with five strikeouts for visiting Sunny Hills (14-10, 9-4). Looney allowed a single in the second inning. Jason Sugarman and Brett Ransom each hit two-run home runs and Ryan Frace had a solo homer for the Lancers.