A Clean Sweep

2/16/2011 5:39:18 PM

Megan Whitmire

Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
Photo Gallery

EDMOND (Feb. 16) – It was a dominating performance in all phases for Central Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon as the Bronchos opened the 2011 season with a doubleheader sweep of Northwest Missouri.

UCO rolled to 7-1 and 8-0 victories, outhitting the Bearcats 22-6 on the day while getting a pair of complete-game pitching outings and committing just one fielding error in the two contests.

Brittany Weaver, Rachel Lowery and Kacie Edwards had two hits apiece to lead a nine-hit attack in the 7-1 first-game victory, with Megan Whitmire and Kayce Raines both going 3-for-3 to pace a 13-hit assault in the second-game rout.

Rachael Steverson went the full seven innings in the opener, striking out eight while allowing four hits and one run. Freshman Amanda McClelland had an impressive debut in the nightcap, fanning eight in a two-hit shutout.

“It was a great way to start the season,” UCO coach Genny Stidham said. “We were aggressive at the plate and really swung the bats well and I thought both pitchers looked good.”

The Bronchos wasted no time in the first game, pushing across three runs on three hits in their first at bat.

Edwards, who set a single-season school record with 19 doubles as a rookie last year, gave UCO a lead it would never relinquish with a run-scoring double and Weaver added a two-run single later in the inning to make it 3-0.

The Bronchos had another three-run explosion in the third, getting an RBI double from Weaver and a two-run double from Hannah Justus to go up 6-0. NWMSU scored its lone run of the day in the fifth, but UCO got that back in the sixth on Raines' solo home run to left-center field.

The Bronchos jumped out to a quick lead in the second game as well, going up 2-0 in the first behind an RBI double from Edwards and a run-scoring single from Whitmire. Raines made it 3-0 in the second when she doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Carly Skinner's ground-out.

UCO pushed the advantage to 5-0 in the fourth on Edwards' two-run single and then ended the game early with three runs in the fifth. Raines' RBI double made it 6-0 and Lowery's two-run single completed the run-rule rout.

The Bronchos travel to Durant, Okla. This weekend to play six games in the South Central Regional Challenge.

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