Shivers Lifts Bronchos To Split

4/24/2010 8:30:27 PM

Kacie Edwards

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
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EDMOND (April 24) – Molly Shivers delivered a pair of clutch late-inning hits to lift Central Oklahoma to a 5-4 first-game victory and the Bronchos went on to split a Lone Star Conference North Division doubleheader with Cameron here Saturday afternoon.

Shivers drilled a run-scoring single in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 4-all and force extra innings, with the senior standout coming through again in the bottom of the ninth when she smacked a lead-off home run to end the game. The Aggies rebounded in the nightcap, cruising to an 11-0 run-rule victory.

UCO, now 27-15 overall and 12-6 in the LSC North, ends the regular season next week with a four-game league series against Southeastern Oklahoma. The teams meet for a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Edmond before playing two more games Saturday in Durant.

“Molly has been clutch all during her career and she did it for us again today,” UCO coach Genny Stidham said. “That was a game we had to have and she came through when we needed her most. I was disappointed with the way we came back and played in the second game, but we just have to put that behind us and get ready for four big games this week.”

The opener featured two lightning delays and took more than three and a half hours to complete, with the two teams combining to leave 28 runners on base. UCO had 10 hits and eight walks but stranded 17 runners, leaving the bases loaded twice.

Cameron turned three walks, a fielder's choice and an error into two runs in the top of the first inning, with the Bronchos getting a run back in their first at bat on Brittany Geter's RBI double.

It stayed that way until the fourth when UCO pushed across two runs to take a 3-2 lead. Brittany Weaver started things with a lead-off single and she went to second on Rachel Lowery's sacrifice bunt before taking third on an error that allowed Shivers to reach second base.

Kacie Edwards then came through with a two-out single that scored both runs to put the Bronchos on top.

The Aggies used a two-run homer to surge ahead in the sixth, with UCO rallying to tie it in its final at bat.

Megan Bentley led off the seventh with a single and she went to second one out later on a walk to Lowery before scoring the tying run when Shivers roped a base hit to left center. UCO eventually loaded the bases, but was unable to push across the winning run.

The Bronchos got out of a huge bases-loaded, two-out jam in the top of the eighth when Weaver made a lunging catch of a hard-hit liner up the middle from her second base position to end the inning and third baseman Niki Hunt threw out a CU runner at the plate in the ninth.

Shivers then won it when she led off in the bottom of the ninth, lofting a 3-2 pitch to straightaway center field that barely cleared the fence and ended the tense contest.

Shivers, Edwards and Weaver had two hits apiece for UCO, while Rachael Steverson earned the pitching win in relief. She gave up just one hit in 3 1/3 innings to improve to 12-5 on the year.

The Bronchos were never in the second game as CU hit three home runs in coasting to an easy win. The Aggies broke a scoreless tie with six runs in the third, then added four in the fourth and one in the fifth to end the game early on the eight-run rule.

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