Seniors give CU big win in finale

LAWTON, Oklahoma (April 18) – Propelled by the bats of their senior players, the Cameron Aggie softball team (32-18, 17-7 LSC North) worked out a split today with the rival Bronchos of Central Oklahoma (24-13, 16-6 LSC North). UCO came from behind to win the opener 5-2, but CU exacted revenge with an 8-1 victory in the finale. Today’s games were CU’s final home contests of the 2009 season.

“Obviously we wanted to win both games today, but splitting with a talented team like UCO is always good,” Head Coach Beth Watson said. “I was glad we were able to bounce back and win the second game, because it’s easy to get swept when you drop the first one.”

The Aggies needed to sweep the Bronchos in order to leapfrog UCO into second place in the Lone Star Conference North Division standings. With today’s split, Cameron will finish the regular season in third place and now travel to Durant, Oklahoma, next week (April 24-26) for the first three rounds of the LSC Championship tournament. A second place finish would have sent CU to Abilene, Texas, for the other side of the tournament bracket.

Next Friday (April 24) at 12:00pm, the Aggies will take on the nationally-ranked #4 Angelo State Rambelles in the first round of the double-elimination conference tournament. A win over ASU puts CU in the second round with an 11:00am start on Saturday (April 25), while a loss puts the Aggies in the 1:30pm consolation game on Saturday.

“One of our goals at the beginning of the year was to make the LSC tournament again, and we are excited to be heading back to the postseason,” Coach Watson said. “Angelo State is one of the few teams in the conference we haven’t played this year, so it will be an interesting match-up.”

In today’s opener the Aggies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, and would have been up 4-0 had a two-run home run by junior catcher Callie Schlatter not been overruled by the umpires due to a roster discrepancy. The Bronchos scored the final 5 runs of the game to secure the 5-2 victory.

UCO out-hit CU 8-3, and Cameron committed the games only 2 errors.

The Bronchos were the first ones on the scoreboard in today’s nightcap, but the Aggies quickly responded. After UCO put up a single unearned run in the top of the third, CU scored 5 in the bottom of the third to take the lead for the first and final time. Cameron scored a trio of runs in the sixth inning to win it 8-1.

This time the Aggies out-hit the Bronchos, 11-5. Once again however, Cameron committed the only 2 errors in the game.

“I was really happy to see our seniors have a big day in our last home games,” Coach Watson said. “Three of our seniors hit home runs today, and all five contributed to the split in some way. It’s was a great regular season, and hopefully we will have a lot of softball to play in the postseason.”

No word has been given on whether Cameron and Oklahoma City University will make up last week’s postponed double-header next week, or if the games will ultimately be cancelled. If the CU-OCU series is in fact cancelled, Cameron’s next action will be in the LSC Championship tournament.

Aggie fans are encouraged to stay tuned to the Cameron Athletics website (goaggies.cameron.edu) for the latest in Aggie scheduling updates. Fans can also visit the Lone Star Conference website (lonestarconference.org) for updated scores and statistics from the conference tournament.