By: KSU Sports Information Department
KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State looks for it second straight win on Tuesday night when they host Western Carolina in a non-conference game at Stillwell Stadium.
The Owls (10-5) concluded a five-game road trip with a win over Belmont on Sunday afternoon in Nashville while Western Carolina (7-6) is coming into the game with a three-game losing streak after being swept at UNC Greensboro over the weekend.
Freshman right-hander Travis Dean (1-1) will make his third start of the season for the Owls. He is coming off his shortest start of his brief career as he threw just two and two-third innings at No. 24-ranked Georgia Tech last Wednesday afternoon.
Adam Curtis (0-0) makes his second start of the season for the Catamounts. The left-hander threw four and one-third innings against Manhattan, leaving with a 3-2 lead after allowing a pair of runs on six hits with three strikeouts.
Will Howard brings his 10-game hitting streak into the game. The streak is the second-longest on the Owls this season, trailing only Ronnie Freeman’s 13-game streak that ended last Friday.
Howard is in his first year with the Owls after transferring from Georgia Perimeter College. The left-handed hitting center fielder has been in the starting lineup since Opening Day and is batting .366 during the streak. He enters the game with a .305 mark, one of four starters hitting over three hundred.
Ethan Herron has provided a spark to the Owls offense, hitting .533 (8-for-15) in six games. Playing primarily off the bench, Herron has made two starts at second base and had five hits in the final two games of the weekend series against Belmont. Riding a two-game hitting streak, Herron has hit safely in every game in which he has had at least two at-bats.
Junior Ross Heffley, and his 11-game hitting streak, leads a Western Carolina that is hitting .294 as a team this season. The Snellville, Ga. native was a high school teammate of the Owls Ronnie Freeman and is batting .521 while leading the Catamounts in nearly every offensive category. Seniors Austin Schultz and Stephen Notaro are both hitting over .380 for WCU, who has had 10 or more hits in a game five times this season.
Today’s game will be the eighth meeting between the teams and the first of two meetings this season. It also marks the first time the Owls and Catamounts have met since April of 2009, when the Owls took a 12-10 decision at Stillwell Stadium. Western Carolina leads the all-time series, 5-2, with Kennesaw State winning the last two meetings, both at Stillwell Stadium.
The game is KSU Car Decal Night for the first 200 fans. Kennesaw State will host its first day/night doubleheader on Wednesday's "Get The Red Out Night Day" when they play Harvard at 1:00 p.m. and Georgia at 6:30 p.m. The night game with the Bulldogs is also "Leash the Dawgs Night" with the first 300 fans receiving an special Kennesaw State dog leash.
Wednesday's games can be followed via live stats and can be heard at www.ksuowls.com with Dave Albert calling the action beginning with the pre-game show 10 minutes prior to first pitch.
