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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – With a career-high 8.2 innings pitched from lefty Travis Bergen, the No. 27 Kennesaw State baseball team rode strong starting pitching to a 1-0 shutout win over Alabama in the Tallahassee Regional.
 
The win is the first ever postseason victory in the NCAA Division I era for the Owls and the 24th in the last 25 games for KSU, which moves to 38-21 on the year. Kennesaw State also becomes the first Atlantic Sun Conference team to win in a regional game since the 2011 season.
 
"I thought it was an excellent game for both teams," said Kennesaw State head coach Mike Sansing. "They both played extremely well. I thought Bergen pitched unbelievable and competitive. It was an outstanding performance. Defensively, Kal (Simmons) made a lot of plays. I don't know how many, but he made a lot. I think we played pretty well. The only thing we didn't do was turn a double play late in the game but I thought we had competitive at-bats. We don't have a lot to show for it, but we were able to get the run across and that's all we needed."

Bergen held the Crimson Tide at bay with 8.2 innings pitched, allowing just five hits with three strikeouts and one walk in 121 pitches, 79 of those for strikes. The sophomore improves to 8-4 on the season while Justin McCalvin came in for the save, recording the final out of the game with a fly-out to right field, giving the closer his 15th save of the season.
 
"He was effective," said Sansing of his starting pitcher. "I think he was around 105 pitches going into the last inning. Still, commanding the zone and we talked a little bit afterwards and I thought he was very strong there tonight. It was a tough decision to pull him before the last out. It was at that point and McCalvin did a great job all year, so we were just riding a lot of emotion with Bergen."
 
"I think they were swinging early in the count," said Bergen of his outing. "I was able to locate the fastball pretty well and get some quick outs and that's what kept the pitch count so low."
 
Offensively it took KSU just four hits to take down the Tide, drawing five walks and capitalizing on an Alabama error to drop the No. 2 seeded team into the loser's bracket.
 
After putting runners on base in the second, third and fourth innings, the Owls finally came through in the top of the fifth with Kal Simmons shooting a sacrifice fly to left field. Brennan Morgan, who led off the inning with a first-pitch base hit, came home from third after back-to-back walks from Justin Motley and Cornell Nixon to put the designated hitter in scoring position.
 
The game's first run came after the Owls chased Alabama starter Spencer Turnbull for nearly 100 pitches through the first five innings.
 
KSU threatened again in the top of the seventh, putting two runners on in Morgan and Nixon, both in scoring position, but the Owls failed to bring home the insurance runs heading into the stretch with a 1-0 lead.
 
Bergen then rallied with three strikeouts in his final 2.2 innings of work, handing the game over to McCalvin who punched the Owls ticket into Saturday night's winner's bracket contest with just four pitches.
 
"Obviously it's a huge win for our program," added Sansing. "Just from the Division I level, making an appearance here, which is the first for us and getting the win is also a first. It's all big. It's part of our history. It's pretty special."
 
Bo Way, Morgan, Bahnick and Nixon collected the four hits for KSU during the first round game, Morgan scoring the winning run and Nixon knocking the only hit for extra bases with his third inning double.
 
Simmons had the only RBI during the affair with his sacrifice fly.
 
KSU will now await its fate, taking on the winner of tonight's Florida State vs. Georgia Southern contest at 5 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN3.

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.
  




 

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