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University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

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Sherri Mason
Sherri Mason
3
Rogers St. RSU 37-20
4
Winner Central Oklahoma UCO 44-13
Rogers St. RSU
37-20
3
Final
4
Central Oklahoma UCO
44-13
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Rogers St. RSU 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 8 0
Central Oklahoma UCO 0 0 4 0 0 0 X 4 8 0

W: Beard, Shelby (23-6) L: Kinsley Hill (13-7) S: Kinnaird, Carleigh (4)

Game Recap: Softball |

Defense, Homers Lead UCO Past Hillcats

Bronchos Held off Rogers State 4-3 To Move Into Regional Finals

PITTSBURG, Kansas – Sherri Mason spearheaded another stellar defensive outing and Central Oklahoma used a couple of big home runs to topple Rogers State in a 4-3 thriller Friday afternoon to make the finals of the Central Regional II Tournament. 
 
The No. 11-ranked Bronchos built a 4-0 lead on two-run homers by Rylee Lemos and Jenna Jobe before staving off the Hillcats down the stretch as Mason made four straight huge plays at third base to help close it out. 
 
UCO improved to 44-13 with its first win in four tries against Rogers this season. The Bronchos will play either host Pittsburg State or the Hillcats at noon Saturday for the regional title, with the "if necessary" game at 2:30 p.m. 
 
The Central Regional II champion advances to meet the Central Regional I winner in a best-of-three series next week at a site to be determined. 
 
"That was a fantastic softball game against a great Rogers State team," head coach Sam Mables said. "I was so proud of the toughness and the guts that our team showed." 
 
Mason exemplified that with her play at the hot corner in the final two innings. 
 
The senior fielded a hard-hit grounder before throwing out the batter to end the sixth after RSU had pulled within 4-3 and had two runners on. Then she had a hand in all three seventh inning outs. 
 
Mason's best play came after the Hillcats put runners on first and second with no outs in their final at bat. RSU put down a bunt to try and advance the runners, but Mason was creeping up on the pitch, fielded the ball in front of the plate and whipped a perfect strike to shortstop Hannah Demoff at third for the first out. 
 
Mason finished her sensational afternoon by ranging to her left on two straight ground balls before making clean throws to first baseman Kennedy Clark for consecutive outs that ended the game.  
 
"I thought we made some unbelievable defensive plays," Maples said. "Sherri Mason there at the very end when they tried to lay down a sac bunt and she's up on it quick and gets the girl out at third. We just played with no fear; I think that's what I'm most proud of. 
 
"We just laid it all out there. Sometimes you get the results and sometimes you don't, but that's never what we talk about with our team. It's going at it with no fear and being aggressive and having fun playing this game. And our team had fun today." 
 
The game was a scoreless tie until the Bronchos broke through in the bottom of the third. 
 
Rylee Anglen led off the inning with a hard-earned walk and Rylee Lemos followed with a mammoth shot to center field to put UCO on top. Lemos fouled off two straight two-strike pitches before launching her 14th homer of the season into the cedar trees 35 feet beyond the center field fence. 
 
Clark has made a habit of coming through in the clutch this season and did it again with a two-out single up the middle to set up Jenna Jobe for the second two-run homer of the inning. Jobe smashed a 2-0 pitch into the same trees as Lemos for her fourth big fly of the year and the first since April 3. 
 
That made it 4-0 and the Bronchos survived some anxious moments the rest of the way to hold on. 
 
The Hillcats scored once in the fifth and twice in the sixth to get close, but UCO was up to the task. 
 
Shelby Beard earned the pitching win, improving to 23-6. The junior right-hander gave up seven hits and three runs in 5.1 innings while walking just one and the last of three strikeouts ended the fifth when RSU had runners on second and third. 
 
Carleigh Kinnaird took over in the sixth and finished the game to pick up her fourth save. The rookie righty allowed one hit while walking three in 1.2 innings. 
 
Lemos – who was named a First Team All-Central Region selection by the NFCA earlier Friday - was 3-for-3 at the plate to lead UCO's eight-hit attack. The senior star's third-inning homer moved her into a tie for 10th on the school's single-season list while she's now fifth in RBI (70) and sixth in runs (63). 
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