Box Score SAN ANTONIO (May 3, 2018) – In three Heartland Conference Championship softball games over the past two years, Oklahoma Christian and Lubbock Christian (Texas) engaged in taut, tense affairs, with LCU edging the Lady Eagles each time.

But this time, the breaks – and the result – went OC's way.

With stellar pitching from Kaylie Upton and Madison Nordyke and the ability to execute offensively at key times, second-seeded OC pulled out a 3-2, 10-inning win over the third-seeded Chaparrals on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the league tournament.

Sheridan Fuller led off the bottom of the 10th with a single, went to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Nordyke and scored when Lubbock Christian second baseman K'Leigh Arredondo booted Kaylie Upton's ground ball.

OC (31-23) advanced to the 10 a.m. winner's bracket game against fifth-seeded Rogers State (37-18), which knocked off fourth-seeded Texas A&M International, then top-seeded (and tournament host) St. Mary's (Texas), on Thursday, both by 6-5 counts.

A win over Rogers State would vault the Lady Eagles into the tournament title round on Saturday. OC went 5-0 vs. the Hillcats this season, including a sweep of a three-game series last week, but all five games were close.

"I'm very, very proud of this team," OC coach Tom Heath said. "We pitched well. We played well. We really persevered through a tough, hot game. … We had an awesome pitching performance. It was a very good ballgame.

"We have really played well the last half (of the season). We started out pretty slow, but we knew that we had talent. We knew it would come out. It was just a matter of playing together and not beating ourselves. This is an unselfish team. They play for each other and that has a lot to do with winning close games."

Lubbock Christian likes to overwhelm teams with its powerful offense, but Upton limited the Chaparrals to seven hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out five batters. Nordyke (6-7) went the remaining 4 2/3 innings in the circle, striking out seven and allowing only one hit, buying time for OC's offense.

"My curveball was just moving and my defense was playing great behind me, honestly," Nordyke said. "I knew that even if they did put the bat on the ball, my defense would be there to help me out. We had some great plays out there, some diving catches that really helped me out."

The Chaparrals took a 1-0 lead in the first when K.K. Lopez-Lui's single through the left side of the infield scored Courtney Medina, who had led off with a bunt single. Lubbock Christian had two runners on base with one out, but Upton escaped the jam.

Jessica Killer reached on a bunt single to lead off the third inning for OC and scored on Kayla Eichler's double down the right-field line. But Lubbock Christian back ahead 2-1 in the fourth, with Sydney Beuthien doubling down the left-field line to lead off and scoring on a single up the middle by Arredondo.

OC tied the game again in the fifth, taking advantage of an error by Lubbock Christian third baseman Morgan Dufour that allowed Killer to reach base with one out. The speedy Killer went to third base on a single down the right-field line by Fuller and scored on a sacrifice fly by Eichler off Lubbock Christian starter Monique Francois.

The Lady Eagles chased Francois – considered by many to be the league's top pitcher – in the sixth, but reliever Taylor Hinojos (3-5) held OC at bay most of the rest of the way, allowing only two hits in four innings.

One of those was Fuller's single up the middle to start the 10th, and when Nordyke successfully executed her ninth sacrifice bunt of the season, Upton – OC's cleanup hitter – came up with one out and the game on the line.

"We had a runner in scoring position and I knew that I needed to hit the ball behind them, to at least advance them if not score them, so that was just kind of my mentality, looking for something on the inside part of the plate," Upton said.

Postgame press conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8w8TPbbEQ&feature=youtu.be

Tournament homepage: http://heartlandsports.org/tournaments/?id=74