By: by Jason Hanes
TROY, Ala. - Bucky Smith, Ronnie Freeman, and Brandon Brown each had a pair of RBIs but Kennesaw State couldn't hold an early lead, falling, 10-8, to Troy in non-conference baseball action at Riddle-Pace Field Tuesday evening.
KSU (20-28) scored the first three runs of the game in the opening frame, with Freeman providing the big blow on a two-run single through the left side. Freeman, a freshman, ran his hitting streak to 22 games, tying the longest single-season hitting streak in KSU's Division I history.
After Troy (27-21) cut the deficit to two at the end of one, the Owls manufactured a run in the second. Tyler Stubblefield doubled, stole third, then scored on Smith's first of two sacrifice flies to right field, pushing the Owls lead to three, 4-1.
The Trojans scored in the bottom of the third to cut the lead back down to a pair for KSU, a harbinger of things to come in the middle innings. The Owls would load the bases to start the inning on a single by Peyton Hart, a double by Sean McClurken, and a walk to Brandon Brown. After one batter was retired, Smith lifted his second sac fly of the game to right, giving KSU a 5-2 lead. One batter later, Josh Whitaker singled to left, plating McClurken with KSU's sixth run.
Troy would battle back with two runs in the fourth, but the Owls extended the lead back to four in the top of the fifth on Brown's two-run double to right center. From there, it would be all Trojans as four runs came across in the home half of the fifth, two on T.J. Rivera's two-out single to left center. One inning later, the Trojans would score the final two runs of the game, with the game-winning run coming home on Adam Bryant's solo home run with one away in the inning.
Robby Loew (1-1) pitched 5.1 innings of relief to get the win for the Trojans, retiring 11 straight batters at one point. Brad Long fell to 3-4 on the season for KSU after giving up two runs in an inning of relief.
The Owls will be off until this Friday when they face USC Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C. at Harley Park.
