No. 1 Bronchos Open Season In Vegas

2/5/2014 8:41:00 AM

Kaylee Brunson

Defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Central Oklahoma makes its 2014 debut this weekend when the Bronchos trek to Las Vegas, Nev. for the Desert Stinger Tournament.

UCO will play five games in the three-day, 32-team event hosted by Montana State-Billings at Majestic Park in Las Vegas, taking on four returning national tournament teams in the rugged opener.

The Bronchos of interim head coach Cody White start against No. 22 Augustana at 1:30 p.m. (Oklahoma time) Friday before taking on St. Mary's at 4 p.m. UCO returns Saturday to face No. 8 West Texas A&M at 1:30 p.m. and Mary at 4 p.m. and then finishes Sunday with a 4 p.m. contest against Mary.

Live stats for all five games are available here, while Saturday's showdown with WTAMU will also be video webcast live via the same link.

THE OPPONENTS: Augustana, St. Mary's, WTAMU and Minot State all made the NCAA Division II national tournament last year, with three of those teams winning 40-plus games – SMU (45), WTAMU (44) and Minot (41).

UCO defeated Minot 2-0 in the first round of the Central Regional I Tournament en route to a perfect 9-0 post-season run that ended in the national championship.

Augie, Mary and Minot are all members of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and are Central Regional opponents for the Bronchos. WTAMU is a former Lone Star Conference rival of UCO's, while St. Mary's is in the Heartland Conference.

BRONCHO NOTES
• UCO has a 96-20 record the past two years, having made back-to-back trips to the Championship Finals.

• The Bronchos have 12 players, including seven starters and two pitchers, back from last year's 51-11 national championship team.

• UCO was the unanimous No. 1 team in the pre-season NFCA poll. The Bronchos were ranked 19th heading into last year's national tournament before going a perfect 9-0 to capture its first-ever national title.

• Senior pitcher Kalynn Schrock led Division II in wins (34) and finished seventh in strikeouts (312) last season. She finished 34-6 with a 1.69 earned run average and threw every inning while going 9-0 in the post-season, earning MVP honors in the Championship Finals.

• Junior outfielder Kaylee Brunson enters the season with 56 career stolen bases, needing just 13 more to become UCO's all-time leader. She also ranks ninth in both career hits (137) and runs (96) while carrying a .380 career average.

• Sophomore second baseman Ally Dziadula was a second-team NFCA All-Central Region pick last season after hitting .355 with eight doubles, five home runs and 21 runs batted in.

• Sophomore catcher Tori Collet is the only returner who played in all 62 games last season, catching every inning. She hit .294 with three homers and 31 RBI.

• UCO has three players who have started 100-plus games for their career – senior shortstop Hannah Justus (142), junior outfielder Kaylee Brunson (113) and junior outfielder Devyn Frazier (103).

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