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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Brooke Zukerman
Brooke Zukerman
1
St. Mary's STMU 34-11
2
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 39-8
St. Mary's STMU
34-11
1
Final
2
Central Oklahoma UCO
39-8
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 R H E
St. Mary's STMU 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 3
Central Oklahoma UCO 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 5 0

W: Chestnut, Jayden (17-3) L: Jorden Russell (15-5)

3
Winner St. Mary's STMU 35-11
1
Central Oklahoma UCO 39-9
Winner
St. Mary's STMU
35-11
3
Final
1
Central Oklahoma UCO
39-9
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
St. Mary's STMU 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 10 0
Central Oklahoma UCO 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 1

W: Ashley Mills (10-2) L: Walker, Peyton (19-5)

Game Recap: Softball |

No. 22 UCO Splits With No. 19 Rattlers

EDMOND (April 19) – Jayden Chestnut pitched Central Oklahoma to a tight first-game win as the No. 22-ranked Bronchos split a non-conference doubleheader with No. 19 St. Mary's Wednesday afternoon in the final home appearance of the regular season.
 
Chestnut struck out a season-high 13 and UCO scored the winning run on an error in the eighth inning to pull out a 2-1 victory in the opener before the Rattlers pushed across two seventh-inning runs to claim a 3-1 triumph in the nightcap.
 
"It was two hard-fought games between two good teams," head coach Cody White said.  "We had a chance to win both games, but so did St. Mary's."
 
The Bronchos won the opener in dramatic fashion, scoring the tie-breaking run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
 
JoBi Heath's one-out double to center field kick-started the game-winning rally, with Lauren Kelley coming on to pinch run.  A groundout accounted for the second out and the inning appeared over when Carli Jones lofted a long fly to center field, but St. Mary's dropped the ball at the fence to allow Kelley to score the winning run.
 
UCO's only other score came in the fourth, thanks to the speed of Brooke Zukerman.
 
The senior standout ripped a two-out double to left-center field and Ashleigh Tramel followed with a first-pitch single up the middle that SMU's shortstop stopped deep in the hole.  Zukerman never stopped running on the play and scored when her hard slide into home plate dislodged the ball from the catcher, tying the game at 1-1.
 
Chestnut had another dominating effort in the circle in winning her 10th straight, giving up just four hits in tossing her 16th complete game.  The sophomore right-hander fanned 13 – her third consecutive game with 10-plus strikeouts – and didn't issue a walk in a 119-pitch outing, improving to 17-3.
 
Zukerman had two of UCO's four hits in the contest.
 
The Rattlers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap, which stood up until the Bronchos pulled even in the third.
 
Mo Selman led off that inning with a double to left-center field and moved to third on Lexi Watson's sacrifice bunt before trotting home on Morgan Heard's bloop double to right field.  It was the 56th double of Heard's career, tying the school record set by Kacie Edwards from 2010-13.
 
UCO had a chance to break the tie in the fifth after loading the bases with two outs, but St. Mary's brought in its relief ace to get an inning-ending strikeout.  The Rattlers then put their first two batters on in the sixth, with Selman turning a double play at second base to help the Bronchos out of that jam.
 
St. Mary's finally broke the tie in the seventh, scoring one run on an error and another on a solo home run, and UCO had no answer in its final at bat.
 
The Bronchos, now 39-9, end the regular season with back-to-back Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association doubleheaders Sunday and Monday.
 
UCO was slated to play at Missouri Southern Friday and Pittsburg State Saturday, but those games have been moved back because of impending weather.  The Bronchos take on MSSU starting at 3 p.m. Sunday before moving on to play PSU at 2 p.m. Monday.
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