Boxscore

EDMOND (May 2) – Wacey Henderson broke a 3-3 tie with an opposite field home run that just cleared the right field fence and propelled Central Oklahoma into the final four of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Poist-season Tournament with a 4-3 victory over Nebraska-Kearney Friday afternoon at Wendell Simmons Field.

The Bronchos completed a two-day sweep of the best-of-three series and improved to 36-15 in moving on to next week's final four in Springfield, Mo.  UCO will play the winner of the Emporia State-Washburn series May 8 at 2:30 p.m. in the first round.

"It was a good team win in a tough post-season game," head coach Dax Leone said. "We played good defense all weekend and got timely hitting. I am excited for Wacey to come through in such an opportune moment.  Nebraska-Kearney is a tough opponent and had a good season and we're fortunate to be advancing to the next round."

The Bronchos were leading 3-1 in the seventh behind ace Ricky Reeves, but the Lopers got four straight hits with two outs to pull even.  Reeves left after the second hit and allowed three runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings of work.

UNK threatened to do more damage in the seventh with the bases loaded, but Mason Justice came on to strike out Anthony Pacheco and get UCO out of the inning.

Henderson then came up with two outs in the eighth and lifted a fly ball to right field that kept carrying until it finally landed on the other side of the wall for his first home run of the season.

Relief ace Phillip Wilson came in to pitch a scoreless ninth to secure his ninth save, second on UCO's single-season list.

The Bronchos jumped out to a 3-1 lead, thanks to the bat of Jake O'Brien.  The junior first baseman tied the game in the bottom of the first with his fourth homer of the season and then came through with a two-run single in the third to put UCO on top.