Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
SAN ANGELO, Texas (March 20) – Kade Kauk picked up a complete-game pitching win and Central Oklahoma ended an eight-game losing streak in splitting a Lone Star Conference doubleheader with Angelo State here Saturday.
The Bronchos dropped the first game 7-6 when ASU scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back bases-loaded walks, but UCO bounced back to take the series finale as Kauk went the full nine innings on the mound and supported his own cause with an RBI single.
“I thought we showed a lot of character in coming back and winning the last game of a tough series for us,” UCO coach Wendell Simmons said. “It would have been easy to check it in after the way we lost the first game, but Kade threw a good game and we came up with some timely hits.”
Kauk showcased great control in going the full nine innings in the nightcap, walking none and striking out two while scattering nine hits and allowing two unearned runs in improving to 3-1.
ASU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Bronchos surged in front to stay with a four-run third-inning uprising.
Jordan Mullin started things off with a lead-off single and he scored one out later on Ryan Schoonover's double to left-center field. Kauk followed with another double that scored Schoonover for the go-ahead run, with an RBI single by Casey Bruns and bases-loaded walk to David Hadley pushing the lead to 4-1.
The Rams got their second and final run in the bottom of the third to make it 4-2, but the Bronchos added single runs in the fifth, seventh and ninth to win going away.
Mullin had a run-scoring single in the fifth, Arrow Cunningham followed a Luke Yost triple with an RBI double in the seventh and UCO completed the scoring in the ninth when Bruns tripled and scored on David Walker's sacrifice fly.
Mullen went 3-for-5 to lead the offense, while Cunningham and Bruns had two hits apiece.
ASU took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the opener, but the Bronchos tied it with Walker's RBI single in the second and Cunningham's run-scoring base hit in the third.
UCO took a 6-2 lead with a four-run volley in the sixth, getting a two-run single from Yost, an RBI single from Corey Hawk and a squeeze bunt RBI from Nate Mitani.
The Rams got three runs back in that frame to pull within 6-5 and it stayed that way until the last inning when consecutive bases-loaded walks pushed across the tying and winning runs.
Yost went 3-for-4 to pace the Bronchos.
UCO, now 8-14 on the year and 6-14 in the conference, return to action Tuesday when it hosts USAO for a single nine-inning game at 3 p.m.
