By: KSU Sports Information
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KENNESAW, Ga. The Kennesaw State Baseball team locked up a spot in the 2012 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Tournament on Friday evening at Stillwell Stadium with a 6-2 win over East Tennessee State.
Friday’s contest would open with a pitching duel between Owls’ starter
Kevin Kyle and Jake Long. Each starter would have a shutout through four innings with only three hits in the contest.
KSU (31-22, 15-10) eventually ended the shutout in the bottom of the fifth inning when
Max Pentecost led off with a triple to left centerfield. Pentecost would come into score on a wild pitch by Long and gave the Owls a 1-0 lead.
ETSU (22-32, 7-19) would retake the lead in the sixth inning after Mathew Scruggs, the A-Sun Conference leader in homeruns connected with his 20th of the season to put the Bucs on top 2-1.
In the bottom half of the frame the Owls knotted the game up with a double by
Andy Chriscaden that scored
Andy Almonte from first base and made it a 2-2 ball game.
The Owls would open the game up in the seventh inning with four runs. After loading the bases and running Bucs’ starter Long from the game, the Black and Gold racked up three hits off the ETSU relievers to take a 6-2 lead.
Peyton Hart started the rally with an RBI single and was followed by a two RBI single by Almonte and another RBI single by
Ronnie Freeman.
Kyle (2-4) earned the win after allowing six hits and two runs over eight innings. Kyle struck out eight batters, tying his season high for an outing while walking only one in the contest. For the Bucs, Long (2-9) took the loss after giving up five runs on six hits and three walks in 6.1 innings.
The offensive leader for the Black and Gold was Pentecost who led the Kennesaw State charge, going 3-for-4 from the dish. Almonte and Freeman each went 2-for-4 with Almonte collecting two RBI and Freeman earning one.
“I am happy for the team,” head coach
Mike Sansing said. “This is what we have been working for all season. We set a goal to make it into the A-Sun Tournament and to follow through is real special. This team has worked extremely hard all season and I like our chances heading into postseason play.”
Game three and the final regular season game will be on Saturday at 1 p.m. E.T., as
Travis Dean will take to the mound.
