By: By Brandon Scardigli
BOX SCORE (XML) | BOX SCORE (PDF)SPARTANBURG, S.C. – It was a career night for Kennesaw State starting pitcher
Jordan Hillyer as the sophomore led the Owls to their sixth straight win with a 6-1 victory over USC Upstate on Friday night.
KSU evens its record at 20-20 on the year and 7-9 in the Atlantic Sun Conference as Hillyer went eight full innings giving up just three hits while striking out a career-high nine batters.
At one point the righty retired 19-of-20 hitters faced and had a streak of six batters struck out in seven seen as he moves to 3-4 on the season.
KSU took the lead in the top of the third inning as
Jacob Bruce came around to score the night's first run with a
Bo Way RBI single.
Alex Liquori then stepped up with runners on second and third and belted a single to center to score both, putting the Owls up 3-0.
Max Pentecost, who keeps his hit streak going at 21 games, came up one inning later and drilled a two RBI single that scored Bruce and
Kal Simmons to set the Owls up by five.
Upstate, who falls to 14-26 on the year and 4-12 in the A-Sun, put up its lone run in the bottom of the eighth, but the Owls answered, putting across one more in the ninth with an RBI single from Collin Bennett.
James Connell then came in and closed things out with two strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth for the win.
Way had the big offensive night, going 4-for-5 with two runs scored, two stolen bases and an RBI. Pentecost and Liquori each picked up two hits as well as two RBIs, Pentecost scoring one in the process.
All six runs for KSU came with two outs in the innings as the Owls also played an errorless game defensively.
Hillyer took over the team lead in strikeouts with his performance, now holding 49 on the season.
The Owls and the Spartans will play game two tomorrow, Friday, April 18, in a 5 p.m. ET contest with
Travis Bergen on the hill for KSU.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State baseball news, follow the team on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsBaseball or by liking Kennesaw State University on
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For more information on how to purchase tickets, please call the KSU ticket office at 770-423-6957, or by visiting
KSUOwls.com/tickets.
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