Broncho Bats Overwhelm Washburn

4/13/2013 6:02:00 PM

Brooke Zukerman

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

EDMOND (April 13) – Central Oklahoma's offensive firepower was simply too much for Washburn Saturday afternoon as the No. 8-ranked Bronchos scored 27 runs on 27 hits in sweeping a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association doubleheader.

UCO banged out 16 hits in an 11-8 first-game win and hammered five home runs – including two each by Kacie Edwards and Brooke Zukerman – in a 16-7 second-game rout that ended after five innings on the eight-run rule.

The Bronchos improved to 31-7 overall and now lead the league at 15-1, having won 11 straight games and 14 in a row at home. UCO wraps up a three-day, six-game homestand Sunday with a 2 p.m. twinbill against Northeastern State.

“Offensively we had a great day, but our pitching and defense wasn't what we need,” said head coach Genny Stidham, who reached the 30-win mark for the seventh time in her 16-year UCO career. “We swung the bats well and made some things happen with our offense.”

The Bronchos appeared en route to an easy run-rule victory in the opener after opening up an 8-0 lead through four innings, but Washburn stayed alive with four runs in the fifth and the Lady Blues were within 10-8 after another four-run volley in the sixth.

UCO got an insurance run on Kaylee Brunson's run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth and Amanda McClelland kept WU scoreless in the seventh to end the game.

Edwards, Nicole Workman and Sam Cool had three hits apiece to pace a 16-hit attack, while Hayley Hudson added two hits.

Workman's two-run homer in the first inning staked UCO to a 2-0 lead, with Edwards and Cool adding RBI singles in a three-run second that made it 5-0. The cushion grew to 8-0 in the fourth as Tori Collet had a two-run single before the Lady Blues finally got on the scoreboard to make things interesting.

The Bronchos answered with a two-run single from Hudson to make it 10-4, but WU came back with four more in the sixth before UCO was able to close it out.

Edwards and Zukerman both had two-run homers in the first inning of the nightcap to give the Bronchos a 4-1 lead, with Edwards' a moon shot over the center field wall and Zukerman's a line drive to center.

The Lady Blues bounced back with a five-run second to move in front 6-4, but UCO's long ball assault continued in the bottom of that frame as Ally Dziadula drilled a two-run shot to left-center and Edwards bombed another long fly over the center field fence to put the Bronchos on top 7-6.

WU tied it in the top of the third and then UCO really took control, pushing across nine runs on five hits in the bottom of the third. Zukerman's three-run dinger to center was the big blow, with the Bronchos also getting two-run singles from Collet and Hudson.

That made it 16-7 and the Lady Blues went down in order in the fifth to end the game early.

Edwards, Zukerman and Brunson had two hits each to lead an 11-hit outing.

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