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POSTGAME INTERVIEW
KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State baseball starting pitcher
Travis Dean threw six innings striking out a season-high eight batters, but the effort wasn’t enough as the Owls took a 5-1 Saturday loss to the Bears of Mercer University.
The Owls (9-10, 0-2 Atlantic Sun Conference) went up on top early on, scoring their lone run of the ballgame in the bottom of the first as
Bo Way (Brunswick, Ga./Glynn Academy) extended his hit streak to 14 games with a single to left field. Way was then driven in by a
Chris McGowan (Lawrenceville, Ga./Collins Hill HS) base hit after stealing second for a 1-0 KSU lead.
Kennesaw State carried the one-run lead into the fifth when Mercer’s (16-4, 2-0 A-Sun) Logan Gaines drove home the tying run with a RBI single. The Bears then scratched across two in the sixth and added on a pair of insurance runs in the eight en route to the 5-1 win.
“Offensively we just weren’t able to put a threat together,” said Kennesaw State head coach
Mike Sansing “That’s been our story most of the season and it showed up again today.”
After collecting 12 hits in Friday night’s game, the Owls managed five during the Saturday afternoon matchup, all singles, from five different players with McGowan earning the lone RBI and Hart scoring the team’s only run.
The righty Dean falls to 2-3 with the loss from the hill after giving up two earned runs on five hits to go along with his eight strike outs.
“He had some cut on his fastball that was working for him,” added Sansing of his starting pitcher. “We felt like they were swinging and missing a good bit on the fastball. He did well; we just weren’t able to give him run support.”
For the Bears the catcher Austin Barrett was good for two hits in four appearances with two RBI and a run scored while starting pitcher Grant Papelian earned the win to improve to 3-1 after allowing just one run on five hits in seven innings pitched.
The series will wrap-up tomorrow as the Owls and the Bears will square off at 1 p.m. ET in Stillwell Stadium.
Keep up with Owls baseball all season by following KSU on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsBaseball, or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on Facebook.
Kennesaw State University is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
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