BRONCHOS TO MIAA TOURNEY:  Central Oklahoma finished seventh in the final Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association standings and will be the No. 7 seed in the eight-team MIAA Post-season Tournament that starts Thursday at the Lou Brock Sports Complex on the Lindenwood campus in St. Charles, Mo.

The Bronchos, 29-20 on the season, will take on second-seeded Emporia State (35-15) at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in one of four first-round games.

Other opening-round match-ups have No. 3 Washburn (31-18) playing sixth-seeded Northeastern State (27-21) at 9 a.m., top-seeded Central Missouri (34-12) meeting No. 8 Northwest Missouri (24-26) at 4 p.m. and fourth-seeded Missouri Western (34-16) going against No. 5 Missouri Southern (32-18) at 7:30 p.m.

The tournament continues with four games at the same times Friday and Saturday and concludes with Sunday's finals.   UCO will meet the WU/NSU winner or loser Friday.

The tournament champion earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II national tournament.

UCO IN THE MIAA TOURNEY:  The Bronchos are making their third appearance in four tries in the MIAA Post-season Tournament since joining the league in 2013.

UCO has a 5-4 record in the league tourney, going 2-2 in 2013 and 3-2 the following season before not qualifying last year.  

UCO AGAINST THE FIELD:  The Bronchos went 6-15 against the other seven teams in the field during the regular season.

UCO split four games with Central Missouri, went 1-1 against Northeastern State, 1-2 against Missouri Southern, Northwest Missouri and Washburn and 0-3 against Emporia State and Missouri Western.

Teams played each other three times in the conference schedule, with the Bronchos meeting UCM once in a non-conference game early in the season while having one game against NSU cancelled by rain.

ABOUT UCO HITTING:  Some notes and numbers on UCO's offense heading into the MIAA Post-season Tournament.

• The Bronchos are batting .316 as a team and average 11.3 hits a game.  UCO is tied for fifth in NCAA Division II with 80 home runs, two off the single-season school record.

• UCO ranks 14th nationally in slugging percentage (.529), 14th in total runs (431) and 16th in runs per game (8.8).  The Bronchos have scored at least 10 runs in 14 games with a high of 22, having gone 12-2 in those games.

• Junior Jon Kamies tops the MIAA and ranks fifth in Division II in runs batted in with 71, which is fourth-best on UCO's single-season list.  He's also in the top 20 nationally in three other categories -- total bases (seventh, 155), home runs (15th, 18) and slugging percentage (19th, .767), ranking sixth on the school's single-season homer chart.  Kamies, who is batting a team-high .396 with 17 doubles, has had 24 multi-hit and 20 multi-RBI games.  The versatile junior has started at four different positions -- first base (18 games), left field (17), third base (11) and right field (three).

• Junior OF Landon Eason takes a 31-game hitting streak into the conference tourney.  He's second on the team with a .393 average and is in the top 20 nationally in four categories -- triples (12th, seven), total bases (14th, 145), runs (16th, 64) and hits (19th, 83).  Eason leads the conference in hits and triples, ranking third on UCO's single-season list for triples and 10th for hits.  He also has 15 doubles, 11 homers and 49 RBI.

• Sophomore 2B Jake Dyer is the team's third-leading hitter at .368 to go with 14 doubles, eight homers, two triples and 31 RBI.  He went 10-for-15 (.667) with two homers and three RBI in UCO's three-game road sweep of Nebraska-Kearney last weekend that vaulted the Bronchos into the No. 7 seed.

• Senior DH/C Isaac Hellbusch leads the team in walks (33) and has the second-best on-base percentage at .462.  He's batting .333 with 12 doubles, 10 homers and 47 RBI to go along with a team-high 13 stolen bases.

ABOUT UCO PITCHERS:  Some notes and numbers on UCO's pitching heading into the MIAA Post-season Tournament.

• The Bronchos have a team earned run average of 6.00, which ranks eighth in the MIAA.

• UCO gives up 10.4 hits and 7.9 runs a game.

• Senior Daulton Leiker leads the Bronchos with a 6-1 record and 4.52 ERA.  He tops the team in starts (13), innings pitched (75.2) and strikeouts (77).  Leiker ranks fifth on UCO's career strikeout list with 165, having fanned 88 in 65.2 innings last year.

• Junior Brock Stuber is 3-5 with a 4.63 ERA in 12 starts and has thrown UCO's only complete game this season.

• Junior Gibson Russ has the team's best ERA at 0.50, having giving up just eight hits and one earned run in 18.0 innings.  He's made 12 relief appearances and is 2-0 with two saves and 28 strikeouts, with opponents batting a mere .127 against him.

• Junior Ryan McCourt has pitched in a team-high 23 games, all in relief.  He's 4-2 with one save and a 4.44 ERA in 26.1 innings.

ABOUT THE COACH:  In his first season at the UCO helm is John Martin, who came to the Bronchos last summer after spending the previous four years as head coach at Coffeyville Community College.

A former standout catcher at Emporia State, UCO's first-round tournament opponent, Martin went 133-105 at Coffeyville and guided the Ravens to the regional tournament four straight  years.