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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Kennesaw State softball team suffered its second-straight heartbreaking loss in the 2013 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship as the fifth-seeded Owls fell to third-seeded Florida Gulf Coast, 6-4, on a walk-off home run from Kelsey Carpenter in the bottom of the ninth inning to bow out of the tournament.
With the defeat, KSU closes out the final season with Head Coach
Scott Whitlock at the helm with a 34-20 overall record and a 16-6 mark in conference action. FGCU moves to 36-17 and advances to a Friday matchup against fourth-seeded Lipscomb.
Florida Gulf Coast took an early 1-0 lead to open the game with a leadoff home run off of the left field foul pole from Jessica Barnes.
Senior
Sharon Swanson (Canton, Ga./Cherokee HS) then evened the score at 1-1 with a solo shot off the Draper Diamond scoreboard in right center field in the top of the third inning.
FGCU regained the lead with a two-out, three-run home run to left field from Brittney Garabedian in the bottom of the third.
The Owls cut the Eagle lead to 4-2 in the top of the fifth frame as Swanson delivered a RBI sacrifice fly to deep centerfielder to plate sophomore
Natalie Rhodes (Canton, Ga./Cherokee HS) from third base.
Just as in KSU’s opening game in the tournament, the Owls rallied from a late-inning deficit as junior
Carly Van Auken (Largo, Fla./State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota) provided a clutch two-out, two-run double to left center field in the top of the sixth frame, scoring freshman pinch runner
Kara Chambers (Kennesaw, Ga./Allatoona HS) and senior
Jensen Hackett (Tunnel Hill, Ga./Ringgold HS).
History then repeated itself as Carpenter hit a two-out, two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to eliminate the Owls from the Championship.
KSU outhit the Eagles, 12 to seven, with Swanson leading the Owls with a 2-for-3 performance plus two RBI and a run. Hackett, senior
Jamie Saunders (Fayetteville, Ga./Georgia Perimeter College) and junior
Bianca Durant (Douglasville, Ga./Chapel Hill HS) each added a pair of hits.
Senior
Abbey Mixon (Canton, Ga./Cherokee HS) took the loss for the Owls after replacing junior starter
Amanda Henderson (Covington, Ga./Eastside HS) in the third inning. Mixon (14-11) allowed three earned runs and three hits, while striking out two in 4.1 innings of work.
Jaclyn Owen (13-7) earned the win for Florida Gulf Coast, who got two hits, two RBI and two runs from Carpenter.
With the loss, the Owls bid farewell to seniors Hackett, Mixon, Saunders and Swanson.
Keep up with Owls softball by following KSU on Twitter at @
KSUOwlsSoftball and @
KSUOwlNation or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on
Facebook.
Kennesaw State is celebrating 30 years of intercollegiate athletics during the 2012-13 academic year.
