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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Another knock-out pitching performance coupled with strong at-bats helped bring the Kennesaw State baseball team a 12-3 win over USC Upstate on Friday afternoon, bringing the Owls their second consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference series win.
 
KSU also made it seven wins in a row with the nine-run victory, bumping its season record to over .500 at 21-20 and 8-9 in league play.
 
Travis Bergen got the Owls off to a hot start, going the first six innings on the mound giving up just five hits and one earned run while tying a career-high with nine strikeouts.
 
The offense then came through with 19 hits, three alone from Kal Simmons and Dylan Ivey, as the Owls dropped the Spartans to 14-27 on the year and 4-13 in the A-Sun.
 
KSU got the bats going in the fifth, scoring six runs as the Owls brought up 11 batters during the fruitful inning. Simmons started things off with a single followed by a base hit from Jacob Bruce. A wild pitch advanced Simmons to third before an error sent him home for the game's first run.
 
Max Pentecost then sent a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Bruce followed by RBI hits from Alex Liquori, Chris McGowan and Ivey that set the Owls up 6-0.
 
The Owls then tagged on two more one frame later with McGowan knocking the sacrifice fly to score Pentecost before catcher Brennan Morgan drove in Liquori for an 8-0 edge.
 
Upstate scored its first two runs of the series in the sixth to bring the lead back down to six runs for the Owls, but KSU answered, putting up three runs in the top of the seventh on three Spartan errors, two hits and a passed ball for an 11-2 score.
 
The home team managed to add another run in the bottom of the seventh, but the Owls dropped one more on the board for good measure in the ninth as Liquori drove his second double of the game to the left field corner, scoring Pentecost for the 12-3 KSU win.
 
Along with the three hits from Simmons and Ivey, a slew of Owls had two hits including Bo Way, Pentecost, Liquori, McGowan and Morgan. Pentecost, Liquori and Ivey each drove in two with Simmons, Bruce and Liquori coming home to score a pair as well.
 
Pentecost extends his hit-streak to 22 games with his multi-hit outing, stealing his 12^th base of the season during the process.
 
Following Bergen's six innings of work in which he struck out six of the first eight batters faced, Will Solomon, Nathan Harsh and Andrew Austin combined to go the final three innings allowing just two hits and one run.
 
KSU also capitalized off of six fielding errors from the Spartans.
 
The Owls and the Spartans will wrap-up the three-game series with a 1 p.m. ET contest on Saturday, April 19, as the Owls go for the series sweep.
  
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 Facebook.

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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