Box Score & Game Photos

ABILENE, Texas (April 26) – Abilene Christian hit two of its three home runs in the first inning to take the early lead and went on to defeat Central Oklahoma 7-2 in the finals of the Lone Star Conference Softball Championships here Saturday.

The No. 12-ranked Wildcats improved to 42-11 and moved into next week's best-of-three championship series against the winner of Angelo State, which won the other four-team league tournament that was held in Durant, Okla.

UCO ended its season at 26-15.

ACU jumped to a 3-0 lead with its first-inning long-ball outburst and answered UCO's first run in the fourth with its third homer – this one a two-run shot – to make it 5-1.  The Bronchos got their second run in the sixth and again the Wildcats came back with two scores in their half of the inning to put the game away.

“Abilene's got a great team with a lot of big hitters and they hit some big ones today,” UCO coach Genny Stidham said.  “We played hard and never gave up, but it just wasn't meant to be today.  I was proud of the way we battled back yesterday to get to this point, but we ran out of steam.”

The Bronchos bounced back from a big 19-1 first-round loss to West Texas A&M Friday to win two tight games Saturday in making the finals, edging Midwestern State 1-0 and WTAMU 3-1 as Molly Shivers gave up a combined seven hits while going the distance in the pitching circle both games.

Shivers went again Sunday and she gave up five hits and five runs in 4.0 innings.  Rachael Steverson pitched the final two innings, allowing one hit and two unearned runs.

UCO, which managed just five hits in the contest, got its first run in the fourth when Kelsey Tiger had a two-out single and Lindsey McLaughlin followed with an RBI double to right-center field.

The Bronchos got their final run in the sixth on Jennifer Edwards' single that scored Niki Hunt, who had a one-out single and went to second on a groundout.