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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Carli Jones
4
Winner Missouri Western MWSU 43-11
3
Central Oklahoma UCO 39-18
Winner
Missouri Western MWSU
43-11
4
Final
3
Central Oklahoma UCO
39-18
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Missouri Western MWSU 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 4 9 0
Central Oklahoma UCO 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 11 1

W: Saladino,S. (21-3) L: Walker, Jessi (16-9)

Game Recap: Softball |

Griffons Top UCO In MIAA Finals

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (April 30) – A seventh-inning rally was denied as Central Oklahoma fell to No. 13-ranked Missouri Western 4-3 in the finals of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Post-season Tournament Saturday afternoon at the ASA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.
 
The Bronchos loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh and had Carli Jones – who had homered earlier in the game – at the plate, but the Griffons turned Jones' grounder up the middle into a game-ending double play.
 
Central trimmed Pittsburg State 7-6 Saturday morning to advance to the finals before falling short against MWSU.  The Bronchos fell to 39-18 with their fourth loss of the season to the regular season champion Griffons, who improved to 43-11 in earning the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II national tournament.
 
UCO is expected to receive an at-large berth into that 64-team field, which will be announced at 9 a.m. Monday.
 
"That was a heck of a softball game," head coach Cody White said after the loss to MWSU.  "Two good teams went at it and we both played well.  We had some chances to score a few more runs, but I was proud of the way we battled today."
 
MWSU led 2-0 early before the Bronchos came back to tie it with two scores in the bottom of the third.
 
Rachel Harper led off the inning with a walk and Morgan Heard singled up the middle before both advanced on Ashton Smith's sacrifice bunt.  Halley Randolph plated the first run with a single to center and Tori Collet's perfect bunt single tied it.
 
Jones started the fourth with a massive home run – her sixth of the season – to center field and it stayed 3-2 until the sixth when the Griffons tied it, with JoBi Heath making a superb running catch in left field to save two runs for the final out.
 
MWSU used a walk and two hits to score the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh and then stifled UCO's comeback try.
 
Randolph's one-out bloop single got the Bronchos started in the seventh, Collet followed with a base hit down the right-field line and Heath drew a walk to load the bases before the Griffons turned their second double play of the game to end it.
 
Collet went 3-for-4 at the plate to lead an 11-hit attack, while Randolph and Heath had two hits each.
 
UCO broke a scoreless tie in the first game against PSU with four runs in the third inning and eventually built a 7-1 lead before holding off the Gorillas at the end.
 
Harper started the third with a lead-off bunt single and went to second on Heard's sacrifice bunt before scoring on Smith's double to left-center field.  Collet ripped a two-out double to center field to make it 2-0 and Heath followed with a line-drive homer to right-center, her 13th of the season.
 
Heard singled, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on Smith's groundout in the fifth to up the lead to 5-0, with PSU getting its first run in the sixth.
 
The Bronchos answered that in the bottom of that inning on Randolph's single through the right side that scored Harper and Heard, who had reached on back-to-back infield hits.
 
That 7-1 advantage appeared safe, but the Gorillas scored five two-out runs in their final at bat to make things interesting before Heath snared a hard-hit line-drive in left field for the final out.
 
Harper, Heard, Heath and Randolph had two hits apiece to lead UCO's 12-hit attack.
 
Jessi Walker went the distance in picking up the pitching win, giving up just one run and five hits in the first six innings before PSU's last-ditch rally.
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