Published: May 07, 2008 09:44 pm            

Bronchos fall to Southeastern

SAN ANGELO, Texas — If Central Oklahoma is going to win the NCAA Division II South Central Regional it’s going to have to do it the hard way.

The Bronchos dropped a 2-0 first-round decision to No. 11-ranked Southeastern Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon to fall into the loser’s bracket, with UCO now needing to win six games to come back and win the double-elimination tournament.

Angelo State won last year’s South Central Regional title after a first-round loss and the Bronchos will begin their quest to repeat that when they take on the Midwestern State-St. Mary’s loser at 11 a.m. Thursday.

SOSU’s Marjorie Johnson tossed a no-hitter to win a tense pitcher’s duel with UCO’s Alli Blake, who gave up just five hits and one earned run at the wind-blown ASU Softball Complex.

“It’s a tough loss,” UCO coach Genny Stidham said. “We didn’t make good contact and didn’t hit to our capabilities. Alli did an outstanding job, but we just didn’t swing the bats very well and weren’t very smart at the plate.”

It was UCO’s fifth straight loss and dropped the Bronchos to 35-15 on the year. It was also the fourth loss in five games this season to the Savage Storm, who improved to 51-10 in moving into Thursday’s semifinals.

“We’ll just have to play more games now,” Blake said. “We can definitely come back and we just have to take it one game at a time.”

The Bronchos hit just one ball out of the infield as the hard-throwing Johnson struck out 11 and walked five in throwing her fifth no-hitter of the season, with two of those walks coming in UCO’s initial at bat.

Meagan Campbell led off the game with a walk and Lindsey McLaughlin drew a one-out free pass, with a passed ball putting them at second and third. But Johnson got out of the jam by getting Kelsey Tiger to pop out and Jodi Craig to groundout and UCO didn’t threaten again.

SOSU scored in the bottom of the first with a lead-off double and consecutive sacrifice bunts, then added an unearned run in the sixth.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.