Box Score (XML) I
Box Score (PDF) I
Photo Gallery I
Video I
Live Stats
KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State baseball team opened the 2013 campaign with an 11-6 home win over Jacksonville State, as freshman
Kal Simmons and sophomore
Jacob Bruce each tallied three RBI on the evening.
“It is always great to open your season on the right page with a win,” Head Coach
Mike Sansing said. “The 14 hits were unexpected, but we will take it. I just hope we can continue the season with this type of offensive production.”
Max Pentecost recorded the first hit of the 2013 season with a single up the middle to start the second. Left stranded at first, Kennesaw State plated the game’s first run in the bottom of the third inning.
Kody Belcher opened the frame with a sharp grounder to third and reached base on an error by the third baseman Eddie Mora-Loera. Simmons would follow with his first collegiate hit, a double in the gap that scored Belcher and the game’s first run.
Bruce would make it back-to-back doubles with a shot down the first base line that scored Simmons.
Peyton Hart would bring home the third run in the inning after a bunt single that he beat out at first, scoring Bruce on the play and giving the Owls a 3-0 lead.
The Gamecocks would get one run back in the top of the fourth inning as Chase Silvani’s two-out single scored Andrew Bishop to bring JSU within three.
Simmons picked up his second and third RBI in the top half of the inning with a single that scored Anthony Duran and Belcher to extend the lead, 5-1.
Junior
Travis Dean would exit the game after four innings of work. Dean put himself in line for the win, allowing only four hits, one earned run, and striking out three.
Junior
Bo Way lifted the team’s first home run of the year over the right field wall to make it a 6-2 contest. Extending the lead in the seventh inning, McGowan tacked on two more runs with his first hit of the game, a double that scored Pentecost and
Andy Almonte.
Justin McCalvin, a 2013 NCBWA Stopper of the Year candidate closed out the eighth inning unscathed. Turning the game back over to the red hot offense, Bruce collected his second hit of the night with a two run home run that cleared the right center field fence. The Owls added another run on the Gamecocks third error of the game to take an 11-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
After a nightmare of a ninth inning that included two pitchers, four runs, three hit batsmen and two walks, the Owls closed out the season opener with an 11-6 victory.
Dean (1-0) earned the win as the Owls offense provided 14 hits and 11 runs, giving Taylor Shields the loss (0-1).
“Dean pitched how we had hoped he would to open the season,” Sansing stated. “We had him set on a pitch count or else I would have loved to see him continue. Outside of a little scare in the ninth inning, I thought the staff threw really well tonight.”
Colton Cross filled the void as the long reliever, tossing three innings, allowing one run on three hits. Replaced by McCalvin who threw a one-hit eighth inning, the combination of
James Connell and
Catlan Kendrick closed out the game.
Game two of the series is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m. E.T. with senior
Kevin Kyle taking the bump against left-handed junior Adam Polk. Live coverage of the game can be heard at KSUOwls.com, with Nathan McCreary describing the action. Keep up with Owls baseball all season by following KSU on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsBaseball, or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on Facebook.
Kennesaw State University is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
