By: by Scott Lipsky
Box Score
ATHENS, Ga. – The Kennesaw State Owls battled the No. 4 team in the nation on Wednesday evening, visiting the Georgia Bulldogs and falling, 6-1.
The trio of Abbey Meixel, Cat Tarvin and Amanda Henderson split the pitching duties for the Owls (28-23), each tossing two innings in the pitcher’s circle. Meixel and Tarvin each allowed two earned runs, with Tarvin also giving two unearned, while Henderson navigated the Owls past the Georgia (41-7) offense without allowing any runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
The Owls ran into some potential trouble in the first inning, with Georgia having already driven in a run and having the bases loaded with just one out. Meixel was cool under pressure, however, getting out of the jam via a gutsy strikeout against Kristyn Sandberg and getting Brittney Hubbard to line out to right field, Bianca Durant snagging the ball on a well-timed jump to end the inning.
Meixel and the Owls continued to mitigate damage in the second inning. With a run already in during the frame after a one out double, the Bulldogs had a runner on third with one out, but the Black and Gold would strand her there, Meixel inducing a fly out to left field before striking out two-time All-American Alisa Goler looking to end the inning.
It was in the third inning when the Bulldogs, who are currently ranked No. 4 in the nation in both major national polls and No. 1 in the NCAA’s latest RPI rankings, would pull away, scoring three runs with Tarvin in the circle to make it 5-0. The first run came across on a sacrifice fly, the next on an error after an errant throw by second baseman Stephanie Phillips, and the third when Brittney Hubbard scored from third while Ashley Pauly was trying to escape a rundown between first and second base.
Down 6-0, The Owls recorded their first hit of the game off of Bulldogs pitcher Morgan Montemayor in the fifth inning, when Sara Sikes, who played her freshman season at Georgia in 2010, hit a chopper up the middle with Lyndsay McCurry on first base to put runners on first and second with two outs. Ashlee Burkett would then drive in Sikes when she lofted single into left center field, driving in McCurry and putting the Owls on the board. Sikes would add the third Owls hit of the night in the top of the seventh, giving her two hits on the night against her former team.
Meixel took the loss for the Owls, falling to 7-6 on the season.
Kennesaw State wraps up the regular season this coming Saturday, when they travel to their in-state rival Mercer for a pair of Atlantic Sun Conference games beginning at 2 p.m. The twin bill will go a long way towards determining the Owls seeding in the upcoming Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament, which will take place in Spartanburg, S.C., beginning May 11.
