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Box Score 2 OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 26, 2017) – It doesn't happen often, but Oklahoma Christian's softball team was swept at home in a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon.
Peyton Walker and Jayden Chestnut each threw a four-hit shutout for No. 13-ranked Central Oklahoma as the Bronchos beat OC 3-0 and 4-0.
OC (8-8) advanced just two runners as far as third base in 14 innings while suffering only its third doubleheader sweep at
Tom Heath Field. West Texas A&M (Feb. 18, 2014) and Cameron (March 17, 2015) posted the other sweeps by road teams at the 4-year-old stadium.
"I thought our effort was good," OC coach
Tom Heath said. "I thought our pitchers really threw pretty well, considering we played one of the top teams in the country. It was just hard to scratch out runs against two of the top pitchers in the country. I thought we did well. We'll just have to regroup and get ready for Tuesday."
In the opener, Walker (6-1) outdueled OC sophomore
Madison Hagood (3-3). Hagood allowed only five hits, but two of them came in the third inning, when the left-hander also issued two walks. JoBi Heath's two-run double to right-center field put UCO (9-3) ahead 2-0.
The Bronchos picked up an unearned run on Morgan Heard's RBI single in the fourth to make it 3-0.
OC's best chance to score came in the first inning, when
Sheridan Bond drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third base on a pair of ground-ball outs. But Walker escaped by coaxing a third ground-ball out, from
Bridget White.
The Lady Eagles didn't record a hit until
Niki Davidson's clean single to left-center in the fourth inning.
Kaylie Upton and
Caitlin Young both reached on infield singles in the fifth, but again Walker emerged unscathed. Upton had two of OC's four hits.
OC again threatened in the first inning in the second game, when
Madison Nordyke doubled down the left-field line with one out and went to third on a groundout by
Haley Squier, but Davidson struck out against Chestnut (1-1), a transfer from Oklahoma who pitched for the Sooners in last year's Women's College World Series.
Nordyke (3-4) allowed seven hits in six innings in the circle for OC. Heard doubled to left-center with one out in the third for UCO and scored when Lexi Watson drew a bases-loaded walk. The Bronchos made it 2-0 in the fourth when Heard's RBI single to right field scored pinch-runner Kaitlynn Monckton.
Brooke Zukerman (in the sixth) and Heard (in the seventh) each hit a solo home run down the left-field line for UCO.
Kayla Eichler had two of OC's four hits in the game.
OC will return to action Tuesday, hosting another in-state rival, Cameron, for a 2 p.m. doubleheader.