Bronchos Drop Two

3/24/2012 7:25:00 PM

Mike Boyle

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

EDMOND (March 24) – Too many free passes, some untimely wild pitches and three key errors proved too much for Central Oklahoma to overcome Saturday afternoon at sun-drenched Wendell Simmons Field as the Bronchos dropped a doubleheader to East Central.

UCO issued 14 walks, threw five wild pitches – including two in a row to plate the tying run in the ninth inning of the second game – and gave up 10 unearned runs in falling to the Tigers, 8-4 and 11-10 in 10 innings.

The Bronchos had just one error in the opener, but it opened the way for a four-run inning that gave ECU a lead it would never relinquish, and two errors led to a six-run inning that put UCO in an early 6-0 hole in the nightcap.

Central came back to take a 9-6 lead in that game and led 10-9 in the top of the ninth before two consecutive two-out wild pitches pushed across the tying run. ECU then won it with a solo home run in the 10th.

UCO dropped to 15-11 with the losses, while the Tigers improved to 19-12. The two teams close out the three-game weekend series Sunday in Ada with a 2 p.m. single game.

The Bronchos took a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the opener on Eric Garza's home run to left field that also scored Tucker Brown, who had a one-out double earlier in the frame.

ECU went on top to stay with a four-run volley in the third, with all four runs unearned as a two-out throwing error scored the first run and kept the inning alive.

The Tigers extended their lead to 8-2 in the sixth, with UCO getting one run back in the sixth on Keegan Morrow's solo homer and another in the seventh on J.P. Maples' RBI single.

Maples and Brown had two hits apiece to lead the Bronchos.

Two walks, two errors, two hits and one hit batter resulted in six unearned runs for ECU in the second inning of the second game to put UCO in a quick hole, though the Bronchos rallied strong.

Brown's three-run double in the bottom of that inning made it 6-3 and UCO tied it in the third as Maples had an RBI double, Mike Boyle a run-scoring hit and Jacob Zinn a sacrifice fly.

Maples put the Bronchos ahead in the fourth with an RBI single, Austin Rycroft made it 8-6 when he scored on a wild pitch and it became a 9-6 lead in the fifth when Boyle hammered a solo homer to right field.

ECU tied it in the sixth and it stayed deadlocked at 9-all until the eighth when Kevin Blue led off with a double, went to third on Rycroft's long fly out and scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-9.

UCO looked like it would hang on for the win when Jake Tuck got two quick strikeouts to start the ninth, but a two-out double and back-to-back wild pitches scored the tying run.

The Tigers went ahead 11-10 in the 10th on a two-out homer and that held up when UCO couldn't push across the tying run after getting two-out singles from Rycroft and Maples.

The Bronchos outhit ECU 15-8 in the game, getting a 3-for-5 outing from Maples and two-hit performances from Boyle, Brown, Blue, Rycroft and Morrow.

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