Bronchos Earn Split With WTAMU

2/13/2011 7:41:12 PM

Tucker Brown

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

CANYON, Texas (Feb. 13) -- Derik Grimes and Keegan Morrow keyed an 18-hit attack that carried Central Oklahoma to a 13-2 battering of West Texas A&M here Sunday afternoon as the Bronchos earned a doubleheader split with the Buffaloes.

WTAMU pulled out a 3-2 win in the opener with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning, but UCO bounced back to easily win the finale of the three-game Lone Star Conference series.

Grimes went 4-for-5 and Morrow 3-for-4 to pace the offensive uprising, while starter Josh Rolan and a trio of relievers combined to limit the Buffs to seven hits.

The Bronchos, now 2-2 on the year, make their home debut Tuesday when they host Oklahoma Christian for a 2 p.m. single game.

“West Texas is a good team and it's tough to win at their place, but we played well today and had a chance to win both games,” first-year head coach Dax Leone said. “I was really happy to see the way we came back like we did after such a tough loss in the first game, which was good to see.”

UCO took control quickly in the second game, rocking the Buffs for seven hits and six runs in its initial at bat.

Grimes and Tucker Brown had run-scoring triples in that inning, with the Bronchos also getting a solo home run from Austin Rycroft, RBI singles from Arrow Cunningham and Ryan Schoonover and a sacrifice fly from Kevin Blue.

The lead grew to 7-0 in the second on Grimes' solo homer and it was 9-0 before WTAMU got its only two runs in the bottom of the third. Rycroft answered that with a two-run double in the fourth to up UCO's lead to 11-2 and the Bronchos coasted in from there in ending the scheduled nine-inning contest after seven on the 10-run rule.

Schoonover, Tucker Brown, Blue, Rycroft and Cunningham all had two hits apiece in the rout. Rolan went the first 5 2/3 innings to earn the pitching win, giving up six hits and two runs while striking out three and walking two.

The Bronchos overcame an early 2-0 deficit in the opener on Rycroft's two-run homer in the fourth and it stayed deadlocked until the bottom of the seventh when WTAMU won it with a single and run-scoring double, both hits coming with two outs.

Jordan Stern went the distance on the mound and took the tough-luck loss despite giving up just three runs, striking out six.

Print Friendly Version

Related Videos

Related Stories