By: KSU Sports Information
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KENNESAW, Ga. – It took a two-hour delay and another half hour rain delay before the Kennesaw State baseball team would beat North Florida 5-1, and give head coach Mike Sansing his 900th career win.
“Great players make good coaches, and we have been fortunate to have so many great players come through Kennesaw State,” Sansing said. “There are so many people that are involved that made the feat possible, and it is a total university accomplishment.”
Josh Carr (6-1) would continue his success on the mound as the senior won his sixth straight contest. Throwing a total of 121 pitches, Carr allowed only four hits and zero earned runs while striking out five Ospreys.
North Florida (17-11) jumped out to an early lead in the first inning with an RBI ground out by Paul Karmeris. The lead would quickly be erased when Will Howard hit his fourth homerun over the right field wall to give the Owls the lead, 2-1.
Aaron Dobbs would single to start the third inning and go on to steal his A-Sun leading 20th base of the season to move into scoring position. After a high pop-up by Andy Almonte that would result in an error by the UNF left fielder, Dobbs came in to score and put the Owls ahead 3-1.
After a scoreless fourth inning, Carr returned to the mound to garner his second three-up, three- down frame. The fifth inning was cut in half because of another brief rain delay, but when play resumed, Almonte would hit a double to right field, bringing in Hart to lengthen the lead to three.
A scoreless sixth inning saw Carr return for the seventh inning and record his third three-up, three-down inning of the evening. Finding relief from Justin McCalvin in the eighth inning, McCalvin gave up only one hit to close out a 5-1 win for the Owls.
“Carr pitched another excellent game for us tonight, and McCalvin was huge in closing it out,” Sansing said. “When Howard hit his homerun, it allowed everyone to exhale and play what turned out to be a great college game.”
Offensive leaders for the Black and Gold were Dobbs with three hits, Ronnie Freeman and Chris McGowan with two his and an RBI a piece, and Howard with two RBI’s.
Kennesaw will look to take the series with game two slated for Saturday at 2:00 p.m., as sophomore Steve Janas will be on the mound against left handed pitcher Michael Renner.
