Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (April 6, 2018) – Madison Hagood appears to be back to her dominant self in the circle, and Oklahoma Christian needed her to be on Friday morning against Newman (Kan.)

Hagood pitched her second three-hit complete game in as many days and the Lady Eagles – after squandering numerous opportunities – picked up the tiebreaking run on a RBI single by Madison Nordyke in the sixth inning, giving them a 2-1 win on an overcast day at Tom Heath Field.

The win gave OC (24-18, 14-7 Heartland Conference) a sweep of its three-game softball series against Newman (8-33, 3-19) and kept the Lady Eagles in second place in the league standings. OC has nine conference games remaining – three games each against Lubbock Christian (Texas), St. Mary's (Texas) and Rogers State, who currently rank third, first and fourth in the league, respectively.

"What we're concerned about is just the next game," OC coach Tom Heath said. "We don't look at the standings. If I asked the players where we're at, they probably wouldn't even know. What we can concentrate on is the one-game-at-a-time concept. … We can take care of ourselves and right now we're playing as well as we've played all year."

Hagood (8-9) allowed only seven hits and one run in 13 innings of work this week, 12 of those against Newman. Last year's Heartland pitcher of the year threw a shutout in OC's 8-0, five-inning win in the series' second game Thursday, then returned to again handcuff the Jets on Friday during her fifth complete game of 2018.

"Madison is throwing a lot better," Heath said. "She's pitching well now. She's confident. She's throwing like she did last year. She battled for us. Yesterday was an outstanding game with a lot of run support. Today, it was a dogfight. That pitcher they threw against us was a pretty good pitcher."

OC left 10 runners on base (compared to two for Newman) and had several scoring opportunities short-circuited by good defense by the Jets. In the second inning, Newman pitcher Nique Payne speared a line drive by Nordyke that would have scored a run and left fielder Taylor Mannis made a sliding catch of a sinking line drive by Lacey Davidson in the fifth inning that would have put the Lady Eagles ahead.

Kayla Eichler's solo home run over the left-field wall in the third inning – her fourth longball of the season – gave OC the early lead. Newman tied the game in the fourth, as Mannis reached on a single and advanced on a groundout, an infield single by Emma Eck and another groundout, by Abbey Davis. Otherwise, the Jets didn't advance a runner past second base.

OC finally regained the lead in the sixth. Payton Sabolski drew a leadoff walk from Payne (4-12) and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Hunter Strickland. Sheridan Fuller's groundout moved Sabolski to third before Nordyke laced a single to left field to score Sabolski.

Hagood retired the Jets in order in the seventh on consecutive ground balls.

"We're pleased with our hitting," Heath said. "Today we had opportunities to score runs and they made good plays to keep that from happening. But our short game was very good today. We got the bunt down, we moved the runners when we needed to and finally it paid off with a line-drive basehit by (Nordyke) to get the run across. We're hitting the ball very well."

OC will play its final nonconference games of the season on Monday, when the Lady Eagles will host Eastern New Mexico for a 1 p.m. doubleheader. The Lady Eagles will visit Lubbock Christian next Friday and Saturday.

Tom Heath discusses the game: https://youtu.be/mnwYhWuknHA

Game highlights: https://youtu.be/_9CoI3fCkO0