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UCO Splits With No. 20 Griffons

Cameron Mavroulis
Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (March 22) -- Cesar Wong keyed a five-run seventh inning that lifted Central Oklahoma to a 7-5 second-game victory over No. 20-ranked Missouri Western to give the Bronchos a split of a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association doubleheader here Friday.

The Griffons ended UCO's six-game winning streak with a 5-4 victory in the opener before the Bronchos bounced back to take the nightcap and hand MWSU its first conference loss of the season, opening up a 7-3 lead with its big seventh inning and then holding on down the stretch. 

The Bronchos, now 16-7 on the season and 13-7 in the league, meet MWSU (18-4, 13-1) in the final game of the series at noon Saturday.

"Missouri Western is as solid a team that we have seen in our three years here," UCO head coach Dax Leone said.  "It was big time college baseball today and tomorrow should be another dogfight.  I'm very proud of our guys today and the way they competed."

The Bronchos trailed 3-2 entering the seventh inning of the second game, but pushed across five runs on two hits and a key error.  Jared Wright tied it with a sacrifice fly, Wong broke the deadlock with a two-run single, Cameron Mavroulis added an RBI double and Rose Rose scored on a wild pitch to give UCO a 7-3 lead.

The Griffons scored twice in the eighth to pull within 7-5 before Ethan Sharp came on to get the final out and MWSU threatened in the ninth when they loaded the bases with two hits and a walk, but Sharp got a groundout to end the game for his third save.

Jake Tuck earned the pitching win in relief.  Wright had two of UCO's eight hits, delivering run-scoring singles in the first and fifth innings.

The Bronchos took a 2-0 lead in the second inning of the opener on Rose's two-run homer, with MWSU scoring four runs in the second for a 4-2 lead.  UCO got RBI singles from Matt Malloy in the third and fifth innings to pull even, but the Griffons went ahead with a run in the sixth to grab the win.

UCO managed just five hits, with Malloy and Wong collecting two apiece.



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