EDMOND, Okla. – The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team was limited to four hits in a 10-3 setback against the No. 20-ranked Central Oklahoma Bronchos.
 
Northwest is 20-27 overall and 11-20 in MIAA play. UCO is 35-11 overall and 21-10 in league action. Despite the loss, Northwest remains tied with Northeastern State for the final spot in the MIAA Tournament. Northwest owns the season-series tiebreaker with the RiverHawks should the two remain tied after the next two games to close out the conference season.
 
The Broncho struck early with a pair of runs in the first and second innings as they touched up Bearcat starter Quinn Mason. Mason walked three and hit a batter in the first two innings and all four came around to score for UCO's 4-0 advantage.
 
Northwest cut the lead in half with a two-out rally in the top of the fourth. Kaihukai Young hit his fifth home run of the season, and first in MIAA play, to slice the lead to 4-2. Brady Miles drew a two-out walk before Young launched his round-tripper on a 2-1 count.
 
Mason issued his fourth and fifth walks of the game to open the fourth and was relieved by Brock Steggall. The Bronchos greeted Steggall with back-to-back run-scoring doubles to take a 7-2 lead. UCO added a sac fly to push the lead to 8-2 to end the scoring in the fourth.
 
Mason ended his night with 3.0 innings pitched, six runs (five earned), five hits, five walks and five strikeouts.
 
UCO's starting pitcher Brett Pense's night ended after 6.0 innings pitched. Pense allowed two hits and two runs while striking out eight Bearcats.
 
UCO added another run in the sixth when right fielder Carson Carpenter led off with a triple. He scored on an RBI single to give UCO a 9-2 lead.
 
Northwest took advantage of a couple of fielding miscues from UCO in the top of the seventh to generate some offense. Evan Tocmo reached on an error by UCO first baseman Ty Chapman with one out. Noah Bodenhausen came through with a single up the middle. Jacob Selock reached on a fielder's choice to put runners on the corners with two outs. Cole Slibowski reached via an error by UCO third baseman Justin Santoyo that allowed Tocmo to score from third. Tocmo's run cut the UCO advantage to 9-3.
 
UCO second baseman Garrett Long hit a leadoff homer in the seventh to build the Broncho lead back to seven at 10-3.
 
Northwest and UCO will play game two on Saturday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. (originally set for 3 p.m. but moved up because of expected inclement weather).