By: by Scott Lipsky
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Owls vs. Campbell: Thursday, 10 am: Watch Live Live Stats
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Kennesaw State Owls mounted a furious comeback after falling behind early on Wednesday, but fell short in the end, dropping a, 7-5, decision to the USC Upstate Spartans in their first game of the 2011 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. They take on Campbell in an elimination game on Thursday morning at 10 am.
Tied, 5-5, with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning after recovering from a five-run deficit, the No. 6 seed Owls (28-26) allowed what would prove to the game-winning runs when the No. 3 seed Spartans (42-11) first baseman Lauren Quevedo hit a towering two-run home run down the left field line off of pitcher Amanda Henderson, who to that point had tossed three scoreless innings. Jessica Cross would double to lead off the top of the seventh, but the Black and Gold wouldn’t put any more runs on the board, sending them to defeat.
“I can’t fault my players at all for the outcome, they played extremely hard,” said Owls head coach Scott Whitlock. “It showed how much character they have when they came all the way back to tie the game. I wish we had pitched a little better earlier in the game, but out pitchers have gotten the job done all season long and we have confidence in them. Amanda Henderson pitched very well for us and kept us in the game, she just left one pitch out there and one of their best offensive players beat us. We need to be ready to go out tomorrow morning and compete.”
After falling behind, 5-0, after two innings, the Owls (28-26) came roaring back in the top of the fourth inning, using timely hitting and some defensive miscues by the Spartans (42-11) en-route to a five-run frame that would tie things up at five. After loading the bases with one out against Spartans’ starter Morgan Childers, who leads the A-Sun this season with 28 wins, the Black and Gold would begin to cut into the lead of the home team.
Brittany Moore would hit a hard-hit ball that went off of the glove of Spartans’ shortstop Ashley Butler, scoring Sharon Swanson, who had also reached earlier in the inning on an error by Butler, and Jessica Cross, who had singled. With two runs in, the Owls continued to chip away, as Jensen Hackett would score two batters when, after a Morgan Chapman single and with Lyndsay McCurry at the plate, Childers would commit one of her seven illegal pitches of the game, making it a 5-3 contest. McCurry immediately capitalized on the momentum, lofting a single to center field for her first of two hits in the contest that would score Moore and Stephanie Phillips, who pinch ran for Chapman.
Prior to their furious fifth inning rally, the Owls allowed the hosting Spartans to jump out in front early. The first four Spartans reached base in the bottom of the first inning against Cross, who was named an All-Atlantic Sun Conference Second Team honoree on Tuesday, making it a 1-0 game with nobody out and the bases loaded. Cross would dig down and avoid significant additional damage in the inning, allowing just one more run on a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 after one.
Upstate would immediately begin to pull away in the bottom of the second, loading up the bases with nobody out before Amanda Henderson would relieve Cross in the pitcher’s circle. The hosts would put three runs on the board in the second frame before all was said and done, coming across on a wild pitch, a sacrifice fly by Kim Brasil and a groundout by Janna Lewis, making it 5-0 through two innings.
Cross joined McCurry as the two Owls to collect multiple hits in the ball game, going 2-for-3 and adding a walk.
Cross went one-inning plus in the circle, allowing five runs, four earned, on four hits. Following Henderson in the circle was Abbey Meixel, who tossed one and two thirds innings of scoreless ball.
Should the Owls win on Thursday morning, they would play Friday at 3 p.m. against either Mercer, Jacksonville, Lipscomb or Upstate. A loss to Campbell would end their tournament run.
The Black and Gold split a doubleheader at Campbell, who is the No. 4 seed in the championship, on Apr. 9, taking the first game 17-1 before dropping the second contest, 8-4. They lead the all-time series against the Camels, who move to the Big South Conference next season, 7-5.
