By: KSU Sports Information
Central Arkansas Box Score
Southern Miss. Box Score
Live Stats for Sunday (Times EST):
Central Arkansas, Noon
Southern Miss, 2:30
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Kennesaw State Owls opened up their 2011 season on Saturday at the Southern Mississippi Mizuno Tournament with back-to-back wins against Central Arkansas and Southern Mississippi.
The Owls (2-0) got off to a great start to their weekend, taking down the Central Arkansas Bears, 4-2, in the tournament opener. Jessica Cross, the Atlantic Sun Conference Preseason Player of the Year, lived up to her lofty expectations in her season debut, striking out 11 batters and allowing just two unearned runs on two hits in seven innings of work, notching a complete game in the pitcher’s circle. She was supported at the plate by sophomore Sharon Swanson, who had all four RBIs for the Black and Gold in Saturday’s opener.
Kennesaw State struck first against Central Arkansas, who played their first two games in program history as a full-fledged NCAA Division I program on Saturday, also falling to host Southern Miss 5-1. After three scoreless innings, the Owls staged a two-out rally, started by Ashlee Burkett who singled up the middle with two strikes to bring Cross to the plate. Cross would help her cause offensively, driving a double down the left field line. That would bring up Swanson, who liked the first pitch she saw from Bears pitcher Kelsie Armstrong and pulled it through the left side, driving in Burkett to give the Owls a, 1-0, lead.
The Bears rallied to tie it up in the top of the fifth on a Katie McGregor single with one out, but Swanson, the only player in the game to have multiple hits with a 2-for-4 outing, would come up in the clutch an inning later, blasting an 0-2 offering from Armstrong over the left center field fence, also bringing to home plate Cross and Burkett, who had worked out back-to-back walks, giving the Owls a commanding, 4-1, advantage.
Central Arkansas scored one in the bottom of the seventh, Melissa Bryant crossing home plate on a wild pitch with two outs and two on. With the tying run on base, Cross was able to dig down and force Candice Gauntt to ground out to shortstop to end the ball game.
During the second contest of the day, the Owls came out on top once again, beating Southern Miss, 9-4. Junior pitcher Cat Tarvin earned the win for the Owls, striking out four batters over five and a third innings pitched. Kennesaw State struck first, driving in two runs in the top of the first off a single by Swanson.
The Owls dominance continued in the second inning when the Golden Eagles walked Burkett to load the bases then Cross right after to bring in Hackett and make it 3-0. A fielding error by the shortstop gave Kennesaw State two more runs to extend the lead to 5-0.
Pitching two shutout innings to start the game, Tarvin would receive even more run support in the third inning when two errors and a wild pitch brought in three more runs to make it 8-0. Southern Miss finally got on the board in the bottom of the third on back-to-back fielding errors by the Owls to make it 8-1.
Scoring in four straight innings, Kennesaw State added one more run after a lead-off triple by Vollmer and a single by Morgan Chapman to score Vollmer. Southern Miss would tack on three more runs but it wasn’t enough to overcome their early deficit giving the Owls their second victory of the day, 9-4.
Swanson was the offensive star of the first day of action, going 4-for-7 with seven RBIs.
Continuing their action in Hattiesburg tomorrow, the Owls will face Central Arkansas again at Noon Eastern Time, followed by Southern Miss at 2:30 p.m.
