Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
DENTON, Texas (Feb. 16) – Seventh-inning run-scoring hits by Megan Bentley and Rachel Lowery lifted Central Oklahoma to a 7-6 second-game victory and a doubleheader sweep of previously unbeaten Texas Woman's here Tuesday evening.
The Bronchos rode a three-run first-inning uprising and Rachael Steverson's pitching to a 3-1 win in the opener before using the late-game heroics in the nightcap to complete the sweep.
UCO, which added the doubleheader to its schedule on Monday, improved to 4-0 on the young season while dropping the Pioneers to 5-2. The Bronchos return to action this weekend at the South Central Regional Challenge in Durant, Okla.
“This is a tough place to play and we got out of here with two really good wins,” UCO coach Genny Stidham said. “Rachael pitched great in the first game and we showed a lot of heart in pulling out the second one.”
The two teams were deadlocked at 5-all heading into the seventh inning of the nightcap when Ashley Noles started a one-out rally with a single. Bentley followed with a double to left-center field to score Noles and give UCO the lead, with Lowery then drilling a double down the left field line to plate Bentley and make it 7-5.
TWU tried to rally in its final at bat and scored once to pull within 7-6 before Lowery closed out the game to earn her first career save.
UCO took a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the game on RBI hits by Kelsie Deckard and Lowery and Kacie Edwards had a two-run double in a three-run fourth that gave the Bronchos a 5-1 lead.
The Pioneers came back with three runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to tie it and set the stage for UCO's late comeback.
Lowery finished 3-for-5 at the plate to lead a 12-hit attack, while Bentley, Noles and Kayce Raines all had two hits apiece. Brittany Zimmerman picked up the pitching win in relief.
UCO broke on top 3-0 in the first inning of the opener while getting just one hit. Two walks and two hit batters keyed that frame, with Deckard delivering a two-run single.
TWU managed one run in the third to pull within 3-1, but the Pioneers didn't really threaten the rest of the way.
Steverson went the distance in the pitching circle to improve to 2-0, giving up six hits and one run while striking out two and walking none.
