Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
EDMOND (March 29) – Casey Bruns walloped two home runs and drove in seven runs to lead Central Oklahoma to a first-game rout of Angelo State here Sunday as the Bronchos earned a Lone Star Conference doubleheader split with the No. 13-ranked Rams.
UCO (17-18) banged out 16 hits and scored a season-high 17 runs in rolling to a 17-7 romp in the opener, with ASU (25-11) coming back to hit five homers in a 17-3 second-game victory. The two teams meet again Monday for a 1 p.m. twinbill to end the four-game series.
“We were aggressive from the start in the first game and really swung the bats well,” UCO coach Wendell Simmons said. “That was probably as well as we've played all year and it was a good win for us, but we didn't come out with the same focus in the second game and Angelo just took it to us.”
The Bronchos got their lead-off hitter in all but one inning of the first game and never trailed, taking control with a four-run fifth before breaking it open with an eight-run sixth.
Bruns was the catalyst, going 3-for-4 with seven RBI and three runs scored. Andrew Foshee and Jason Monko both went 3-for-3, with Foshee driving in three runs and Monko two, and UCO also got two hits apiece from Ryan Schoonover and Luke Yost.
Schoonover gave the Bronchos an early lead when he led off the bottom of the first with a double and eventually scored on Foshee's sacrifice fly and Monko had a run-scoring single in the second to make it 2-0.
The Rams tied it on a two-run homer in the top of the third, but UCO came right back in its next at bat with three runs to go ahead to stay. Foshee had an RBI double, Monko a run-scoring single and Brent Hodge an RBI groundout in that frame to give the Bronchos a 5-2 lead.
UCO got some breathing room in the fifth with a four-run outburst, getting a three-run homer from Bruns and a solo shot from John Bryant to move in front 9-2. ASU hit two solo homers in the sixth to close within 9-4, but the Bronchos put it away in their next at bat.
Eleven batters went to the plate for UCO in that eight-run explosion, with Bruns' grand slam the big blow. Schoonover added a two-run double, Foshee an RBI double and Yost a sacrifice fly as the Bronchos opened up a 17-4 cushion.
ASU got three runs in the top of the seventh, but it wasn't nearly enough. Brian Murphy went the distance on the mound for UCO, throwing 114 pitches and give up nine hits while striking out 10.
The powerful Rams rebounded in a big way in the nightcap, breaking a scoreless tie with six runs in the third en route to their lopsided win. ASU had 16 hits in ending the scheduled nine-inning contest early on the 10-run rule, with NCAA Division II national home run leader Keith Towne hitting two moon shots and driving in seven runs.
Hodge had two of UCO's five hits.
