GAME NOTES | LIVE STATS
KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State softball team will look to finish the regular season off on a high note and clinch a berth in the 2013 Atlantic Sun Conference Championships with its final league series of the season as the Owls travel to Johnson City, Tenn., for a three-game series against East Tennessee State on Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28. First-pitch for both days is scheduled for 1 p.m. (ET).
Live stats will be available on KSUOwls.com for all three contests. Fans can also follow the action by following Kennesaw State softball on Twitter, @
KSUOwlsSoftball.
Kennesaw State (32-18, 14-10 A-Sun) went 2-1 in its three midweek games this past week, winning a rollercoaster ride against Georgia Tech, 9-8, in Atlanta on Wednesday. The Owls benefitted from a catch-and-carry ruling in the top of the seventh against the Yellow Jackets for the game-winning run. KSU then split a doubleheader against UAB on Thursday, first falling 3-0 in game one. Kennesaw State then rebounded to send Head Coach
Scott Whitlock out with a win in his final game at Bailey Park with a 6-1 victory in game two.
Down one for much of game two against the Blazers, Kennesaw State stormed back in the bottom of the sixth with six runs on a grand slam from sophomore
Kaylee Williams (Kennesaw, Ga./Kennesaw Mountain HS) and a two-run freshman
Caitlin Fowler (Flowery Branch, Ga./Flowery Branch HS), her first-career long ball.
Along with her grand slam against the Blazers, Williams also added a three-run homer against Georgia Tech on Wednesday and has registered eight RBI in her last three games on her two home runs and an RBI single up through the left side versus the Yellow Jackets.
The Owls are 5-1 in their last six games, including a crucial conference series sweep of Jacksonville last weekend. Seniors
Sharon Swanson (Canton, Ga./Cherokee HS) and
Abbey Mixon (Canton, Ga./Cherokee HS) have led Kennesaw State in this stretch, with Swanson batting at a .368 clip with seven hits, including a double and a home run, five RBI and two runs, and Mixon going 3-0 with an ERA of 0.82 in 17 innings pitched and 13 strikeouts.
For the season Swanson leads the KSU attack with a .359 batting average, and has 55 hits, 33 RBI and 10 home runs.
Junior
Amanda Henderson (Covington, Ga./Eastside HS) continues to lead the Owls in the circle with a 1.82 ERA in 157.1 innings and is 17-4 on the season. Henderson leads the conference with 186 strikeouts.
ETSU (13-32, 1-22 A-Sun) ended a 26-game conference losing streak by defeating Atlantic Sun Conference leader USC Upstate on Wednesday, April 24. Sam Lower hit the go-ahead, two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth, lifting ETSU to a 3-2 victory. The Bucs’ win over Upstate was the first conference win of the season.
The ETSU offense is led by Nicole Fox, who is hitting .340 with other team-highs in runs (24), hits (54) and stolen bases (16). Fox is the lone Buccaneer with a batting average above .300 and ranks 13th in the Atlantic Sun.
Katie Wolff earned the win on Wednesday over USC Upstate by tossing her 18th complete game and allowing just one earned run on four hits. On the season, Wolff (6-18) boasts a 3.05 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 153.2 innings pitched.
The Owls, currently sitting in fifth place in conference standings, will play the waiting game in terms of advancement and seeding for the 2013 A-Sun Championships as several league teams will be wrapping up play next week.
Keep up with Owls softball this year by following KSU on Twitter at @
KSUOwlNation and @
KSUOwlsSoftball, or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on
Facebook.
Kennesaw State is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
