UCO Rolls Over Lopers

4/13/2013 6:56:00 PM

Tyler Crabtree

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

EDMOND (April 13) – Tyler Crabtree sparked a 23-hit assault that carried Central Oklahoma to a pair of Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association wins over Nebraska-Kearney Saturday afternoon at Wendell Simmons Field.

Crabtree had five hits in eight at bats from his lead-off spot in addition to scoring four runs and driving in four more as the Bronchos rolled to 14-4 and 15-5 wins. UCO, now 21-16 overall and 17-15 in the league, takes on the Lopers again at noon Sunday in the series finale.

The Bronchos also got two solid pitching outings from starters Mason Justice and Edgar Lopez, with Justin going six innings in the opener before Lopez went the full seven in the run-rule second-game victory.

“Baseball is the ultimate game about the players,” head coach Dax Leone said. “Pitching always sets the tone and the game never changes. I thought mason and Edger were both really good today.

UCO had 12 hits in the first game, with Crabtree's 3-for-5, three-RBI outing leading the way. Matt Malloy and Matt Johnson added two hits apiece, while Justice gave up five hits and three runs in six innings of work on the mound.

UNK scored first with a run in the second, but the Bronchos had four-run outbursts in the third and fourth innings to take control.

Lopez had a two-run single, Ryan Stoup an RBI walk and Ross Rose a sacrifice fly in the third, with Crabtree leading off the fourth with a homer before Johnson added a two-run shot and Stoup a sacrifice fly to make it 8-1.

The Lopers scored twice in the sixth to pull within 8-3 before UCO pushed across seven runs in its half of that inning to stay in control.

Crabtree had a two-run double and Jordan Mullin a pinch-hit two-run single to key that uprising to give the Bronchos a 15-3 lead, with UNK scoring twice in its final at bat to arrange the final score.

UCO jumped on top early in the nightcap, scoring four runs on three hits and an error in the first inning. Eric Garza's two-run homer to left-center field was the big blow, with Wacey Henderson and Matt Johnson adding RBI hits.

Johnson's sacrifice fly made it 5-0 in the second, with the Lopers scoring once in the third and fourth innings to pull within 5-2.

The Bronchos scored twice in the fourth without benefit of a hit to make it 7-2, got an RBI double from Rose in the fifth to go up 8-2 and went ahead 11-2 in the sixth on Cesar Wong's three-run homer to left-center.

UNK got its final two runs in the top of the seventh, but UCO ended the scheduled nine-inning contest on the 10-run rule in the bottom of that frame as Crabtree had an RBI single and Robbie Hoffman a run-scoring double that ended it.

Crabtree, Hoffman and Wong had two hits apiece to lead an 11-hit attack. Lopez scattered seven hits in going the distance on the mound to improve to 5-3 on the season.

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