Bronchos Open With Sweep

2/13/2010 5:49:43 PM

Rachel Lowery

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

EDMOND (Feb. 13) – Lack of outside practice time didn't seem to faze Central Oklahoma at the plate Saturday afternoon when the Bronchos opened the 2010 campaign with a doubleheader sweep of Northwest Missouri.

The Bronchos, who practiced on their game field twice in the previous two weeks before of weather, banged out 22 hits in the two wins. UCO had 10 hits and got a tiebreaking solo home run from freshman Kelsie Deckard in the sixth inning of a 5-4 first-game win before using a 12-hit assault in a 10-1 run-rule rout in the nightcap.

“We struggled some in the field, but we certainly made up for it at the plate today,” UCO coach Genny Stidham said. “We were swinging the bats well and stayed aggressive all day. It's encouraging to start the season off on a good note and gives us something to build on.”

The Bronchos committed four errors in the twinbill and only two of NWMSU's five runs were earned. But the offense was up to the task as every player in the lineup got a hit in the sweep.

The Bearcats took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opener with an unearned run, but UCO tied it in the second on Deckard's sacrifice fly and took a 3-1 lead in the third on Kelsey Tiger's two-run double.

Megan Bentley added an RBI single in the fourth to up the lead to 4-1, though NWMSU made up that deficit in the top of the sixth with a two-run homer and another unearned run.

Deckard broke the 4-4 deadlock leading off the bottom of the sixth when she drilled a pitch over the left-center field wall for her first collegiate homer and the Bronchos got out of a two-on, two-out dilemma in the top of the seventh to close out the game.

Bentley, Tiger and Kacie Edwards had two hits apiece the 10-hit attack. Molly Shivers went the distance in the pitching circle to pick up the win, though she needed 150 pitches to get through the game while striking out seven and walking five.

NWMSU started the second game like it did the first with a run in the top of the first, but the Bronchos answered back quickly in their half of the inning when Niki Hunt smoked a three-run homer to give UCO a 3-1 lead.

Tiger's bases-loaded walk made it 4-1 in the second and the Bronchos pushed the advantage to 7-1 in the third as Rachel Lowery had a two-run double and Brittany Weaver an RBI single.

UCO added three more runs in the fourth as Bentley delivered a two-run single and the game ended after five innings because of the eight-run rule.

Bentley finished 3-for-3 to pace the Bronchos, with Lowery and Hunt adding two hits each. Rachael Steverson gave up just two hits and an unearned run while fanning five to earn the pitching win.

UCO is slated to return to action next weekend at the South Central Regional Challenge in Durant.

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