EDMOND —
Mac Gordon and Josh Rolan dominated on the mound to lead Central Oklahoma to a doubleheader sweep of Arlington Baptist Thursday at Wendell Simmons Field as the Bronchos continued their impressive season-ending resurgence.
Gordon allowed just two hits in 6 1/3 innings of a 7-0 first-game rout, while Rolan tossed a complete-gave five-hitter for a 4-1 second-game triumph in the final home games of the 2011 campaign.
The two wins stretched UCO’s winning streak to eight straight and moved first-year head coach Dax Leone’s crew to 22-22 on the season. The Bronchos, who have won 11 of their last 13 games, end the season with a three-game series at Newman Friday and Saturday.
“This group has definitely hung in there and really stuck together this season,” Leone said. “I’m really proud of them and also want to give a lot of credit to the assistant coaches.
“Not many teams are playing at the level we are right now and these 27 young men deserve a lot of credit.”
Gordon shut down the Patriots in the opener, giving up just two hits while throwing only 70 pitches in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one in earning the win before Kevin Hoffman came on to record the final two outs.
Tucker Brown keyed UCO’s 10-hit attack with a 3-for-4 outing at the plate, while Arrow Cunningham had two straight hits to stretch his consecutive-hit streak to eight in a row before grounding out in his third at bat.
The Bronchos broke on top 1-0 in the bottom of the first when Ryan Schoonover walked, went to second on Tyler Hancock’s infield single and took third on Kevin Blue’s fly out before racing home on the front end of a double steal with Hancock.
UCO took control with a four-run second, getting run-scoring singles from Gordon, Brown and Austin Rycroft to go with Hancock’s sacrifice fly. Schoonover completed the scoring in the fourth, following back-to-back one-out singles by Gordon and Brown with a two-run double off the center field wall to make it 7-0.
Arlington Baptist’s lone scoring threat came in the fifth when the Patriots used a base hit and consecutive errors to load the bases with no outs. But Gordon got out of the jam unscathed, using a strikeout, fly out and line out to get out of the inning and keep the shutout intact.
Rolan mowed through the Patriots in lightning-quick fashion through the first four innings, not allowing a single base runner. He gave up three straight one-out hits in the fifth, but buckled down to allow only one run before getting out of trouble.
The junior right-hander was touched for two more hits in the seventh before UCO turned a game-ending double play. Rolan struck out six and didn’t walk a batter in his 84-pitch outing.
The Bronchos broke a scoreless tie in the third on RBI singles by Jordan Mullin and Brown before making it 3-0 in the fourth on Kade Kauk’s run-scoring base hit through the left side.
Arlington Baptist got its lone run of the day in the fifth, but UCO answered that with one of its own in the sixth on back-to-back doubles by Cunningham and Kauk.
Kauk had two of UCO’s eight hits in the contest.
The Bronchos meet Newman for a single game at 6:30 p.m. Friday before ending the season with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday.
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