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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State pitching staff out dueled Jacksonville State in a 2-1 victory on Saturday afternoon at Stillwell Stadium to give the Owls a chance for an opening weekend sweep on Sunday.
Starting pitcher
Kevin Kyle tossed six innings of shutout baseball, allowing only three hits and striking out five en route to his first win of the season.
“Kevin (Kyle) was the key to our success today,” Head Coach
Mike Sansing said. “In rough conditions, he came out and pitched a great game, a performance that we needed with our offense struggling today.”
The offense was held to only three hits in the contests, but an error on a throw down to second by the catcher allowed
Kody Belcher to advance to third after a stolen base. The ensuing batter
Anthony Duran picked up his first RBI of the season on a lazy pop fly that scored Belcher from third for the game’s first run.
KSU would add a second run in the bottom of the seventh inning as the offense capitalized after Belcher was hit by a pitch.
Chris McGowan walked to advance Belcher to second before both runners advanced 90 feet on a bunt down the first base line by Duran.
With the runners playing in on the corners, freshman
Kal Simmons drove a single through the left side to give the Black and Gold a 2-0 lead as Belcher scored his fourth run in two games.
Simmons continued his red hot start to the 2013 campaign with his third hit in two games and bumped his season RBI total to four.
“Simmons is playing great for us right now,” Sansing stated. “He is just a freshman, but he plays the game with so much maturity you would never know it.”
The Gamecocks would make the game interesting when they answered in the top of the 8th inning with a run. Eddie Mora-Loera hit a sacrifice fly to center field that drove in Chase Silvani, but JSU would fail to get any closer as
Justin McCalvin came on in relief with two outs in the top of the eighth inning.
McCalvin returned to the hill in the bottom of the ninth. After allowing the first two JSU hitters to reach base, McCalvin induced back-to-back pop ups before forcing a ground out to Simmons to close out the game and give the Owls a 2-1 win.
Kyle earned the win as the trio of pitchers allowed just five hits while striking out a combined seven hitters. Jacksonville State’s Adam Polk picked up the loss, despite allowing only two hits and zero earned runs.
Kennesaw State aims for the series sweep on Sunday as game three of the series is slated for a 1 p.m. start. Sophomore
Will Solomon will get the nod as the Owls aim for an opening weekend sweep, the first time since the Owls took all three from Ball State on opening weekend of 2011.
Live coverage of Sunday’s game can be listened to on KSUOwls.com, as Nathan McCreary will be calling all 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.
