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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

The Official Site of Central Oklahoma University Athletics Central Oklahoma Athletics
Justin Brown
5
Winner St. Cloud State SCSU 30-15
2
Central Oklahoma UCO 35-20
Winner
St. Cloud State SCSU
30-15
5
Final
2
Central Oklahoma UCO
35-20
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
St. Cloud State SCSU 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 5 7 0
Central Oklahoma UCO 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 4 0

W: Austing, D. (7-1) L: Lemoine, Ryan (8-4) S: Miks, S. (1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Chris Brannick

Bronchos Drop NCAA Opener

MAGNOLIA, Ark. - The University of Central Oklahoma baseball team dropped its NCAA Tournament opener Thursday night 5-2 to St. Cloud State at Walker Stadium on the campus of Southern Arkansas University.

The Bronchos struggled at the plate throughtout the day and gave up one big inning in defeat.

"We got a really good start from Ryan Lemoine today but we didn't give him any support," UCO head baseball coach John Martin said. "We have to be better at the plate and give our guys a chance. And they tagged us up in the sixth and that was more than enough for them."

Lemoine allowed a leadoff hit, but got out of the inning easily after that. In the second he allowed a two-out walk but no harm was done, and in the third, a two-out triple. But again, Lemoine battled back to keep St. Cloud State scoreless.

He kept that going in the fourth with his first 1-2-3 inning of the day as he earned his second strikeout of the day in the frame as well. The senior righty got another 1-2-3 inning in the ffith, but in the sixth, Lemoine began to tire. He hit the first batter of the fifth inning, then gave up a single, a walk, an RBI-double, an RBI-single, and a sacrifice-fly. 

Ben Wusterbarth came on in relief to follow and on the first pitch he threw, gave up a two-run home run to left field that gave St. Cloud State a 5-0 lead heading to the bottom of the sixth.

Lemoine finished with 5 2/3 innings pitched, four earned runs on five hits and two strikeouts.

Junior Obeso threw two solid innings of shutout relief work. He took over for Wusterbarth to start the seventh and didn't allow a hit through the eighth. Landon Bond allowed one hit in the ninth but retired three batters with ease.

Central didn't get its first hit of the game until the bottom of the sixth inning. Justin Brown, who was hit by a pitch in his first at bat, drew a walk with one out in the sixth. Trae Smith then came up two batters later and smashed a shot to right field. It was just a few feet short of going over the fence and he settled for an RBI double to make it 5-1 after six innings. 

But that was all the Bronchos had going. UCO got a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth from Paul Kropf. Dayne Sommer followed with a single up the middle to move Kropf to third. Xavier Freeman then scored Kropf with a single to center field to make it 5-2 before Taylor Avila struck out to end the game.

The NCAA Central Regional is a double-elimination tournament. UCO will play Oklahoma Baptist in the consolation round on Friday at 1:30 p.m. with its season on the line.
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