OKLAHOMA CITY -- February 14, 2020 -- The Chadron State College softball team spent its Valentine's Day in Oklahoma City, where it began its Edmond Regional Festival weekend with promising returns on Friday. The Eagles lashed one of their co-hosts, Oklahoma Christian, 3-2, before a comeback win by Lubbock Christian University on the same field at OC.

CSC pitcher Tia Kohl posted her best performance to date in an Eagles uniform, allowing only one earned run on six hits with three walks. She struck out two in the process, going seven complete innings to get to 2-2 on the season.

Bailey Rominger singled to lead off the third against OC, also nicknamed the Eagles, while Bailey Marvel and Addison Spears both had RBI doubles to put the first two runs up and grab a two-run lead. Ellie Owens laid down a sac bunt to aid the momentum.

OC responded with a run in the fourth, to make it 2-1, but Spears' solo homer, her first over the wall this season, extended CSC's lead to 3-1 in the fifth.

The home team threatened in the seventh, coming nearest to a rally in the game, with two base hits and a runner advanced on error. A home plate putout by Rominger, however, assisted by Marvel, stemmed the comeback at one run, and CSC held on to win 3-2. 

Kohl stranded runners in every inning except the first, in her second win of the season, and by the end of the day she had nearly halved her season earned runs average.

The Eagles from Oklahoma, who were receiving the 27th-most votes in the national coaches poll entering the season, received only their second loss, falling to 9-2 on the season.

Later, in a game delayed until nearly 8 p.m. local time, Chadron State entered a rematch with Lubbock Christian, who won 7-1 against CSC the previous weekend in its own tournament.

Chadron State was in command after innings two, three, four, and five of the game. The Eagles pounded out a five-run second inning, led by a three-RBI double from Spears, to go up 5-3 after two innings, and clung to a lead for the next three frames.

LCU's five-run sixth inning mirrored its late-inning onslaught against CSC just one week earlier. When the dust cleared, the Chapparals had taken a 6-5 lead on earned runs charged to starting pitcher DeAnna Barrera, then extended their lead to 9-5 on five walks and two hits against Kohl, who came in for all three outs in that duration.

Each team managed one run in the seventh, for a final of 10-6.

Lubbock Christian, coached by Daren Hays, the brother of OC coach Shannon, improved to 10-1 at the end of the day. Larry Hays, the father of the pair, is set to visit Chadron in late March as second-year coach of Colorado Christian University. Shannon also coached CCU in 2017 and 2018.

CSC remained an even .500, at 4-4 on the season.

On Saturday the Eagles change locations, just a few short miles, to the University of Central Oklahoma. There they are scheduled to rematch Fort Hays State, whose only losses are to CSC and OC, at noon local time, 11 a.m. MT.

Chadron State faces its host, preseason No. 7 UCO, in the very next time slot. The Bronchos, like CSC, have mixed success, showing an 8-6 overall record. That slate includes a 3-1 stretch against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams, but it also includes a 1-5 showing against teams from the Lone Star Conference, in which OC and LCU are two of the top performers so far.