Game Two Box (Saturday)
Game One Box
Game Two Box
AMARILLO, Texas (Feb. 15) – Kale Murphree went the distance on the mound in the opener to give Central Oklahoma a much-needed victory and the Bronchos went on to sweep a Lone Star Conference doubleheader from West Texas A&M here Sunday.
The Buffaloes used a two-run home run in the bottom of the 12th inning to pull out an 8-6 win in the completion of Saturday's suspended second game before UCO rebounded to take the originally scheduled twinbill, winning 4-2 behind Murphree's complete-game seven-hitter and 8-6 in the series finale.
The Bronchos, who lost Saturday's first game 18-4, is now 4-3 on the year and 2-2 in the league heading into Tuesday's 2:30 p.m. non-conference home opener against Emporia State.
“I thought we did a great job bouncing back after losing the first two games,” UCO coach Wendell Simmons said. “We could have really gotten down on ourselves after they won the suspended game today, but Kale came out and did a great job when we needed it most to give us back the momentum.”
Murphree had UCO's first complete-game outing of the young season when he went the full seven innings in the 4-2 win. The junior right-hander gave up seven hits and two runs while striking out four and walking just one.
The Bronchos scored all of their runs in the third to break a scoreless tie. Blake Mitchell, Nate Mitani and John Bryant started the inning with consecutive singles to account for the first run, with Casey Bruns and Luke Yost adding RBI hits and Brent Hodge a sacrifice fly to give UCO a 4-0 lead.
WTAMU got on the board with one run in the fifth and scored again in its final at bat in the seventh before Murphree closed out the game.
Mitani went 3-for-4 and Yost had a pair of hits to lead the offense.
UCO overcame an early 2-0 deficit in winning the final game of the series, taking a 3-2 lead in the second inning as Wade Gordy had a run-scoring single and Bruns a sacrifice fly.
Yost had an RBI single in the fifth to keep the game deadlocked at 4-4 and the Bronchos surged ahead to stay with three runs in the seventh. Jason Monko and Mitani had run-scoring hits and Gordy a sacrifice fly in that big inning, with Monko adding another RBI single in the eighth to give UCO an 8-4 lead.
The Buffs picked up two runs in the bottom of the ninth to get close, but the Bronchos held on.
Mitani, Yost, Monko, Gordy and Andrew Foshee had two hits apiece to lead UCO's 12-hit attack. Kyle Head earned the pitching win, giving up six hits and four runs in 6 2/3 innings, while Tyson Fugett went the final 2 1/3 innings to pick up the save.
UCO took a 6-5 lead in Saturday's second game with three runs in the top of the ninth as Bryant had a big two-run single, but the Buffs tied it with one in the bottom of that frame before darkness forced the game to be postponed.
It took three more innings to decide it Sunday before WTAMU got a game-winning two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th.
Bryant, Foshee, Yost and Mitani all had two hits for UCO in that contest.
