By: Matteen Zibanejadrad
UP NEXT TO PLATE
The Kennesaw State baseball team (27-19, 13-8) will close out its regular season with a matchup against the Wofford Terriers (32-18) on Tuesday afternoon in the Stillwell Stadium. The 3:00 p.m. game was added to the schedule just last week and will be the final game before Kennesaw State welcomes Lipscomb to "The Shake" for playoff action this weekend.
Opponent: Wofford
Location: Kennesaw, Ga. | Stillwell Stadium
Date: Tuesday, May 18
Time: 3:00 p.m. EST
Starting Pitching
KSU: RHP Andrew Grogan (3-2, 7.18 ERA)
WOF: RHP Holden Wilder (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Live Stats
LAST TIME OUT
The Owls squared off against the top seed in the ASUN's North Division: the Liberty Flames. KSU was able to take a game out of the three-game series, a 7-4 win in the finale.
MALIK'S A MONSTER
The Saturday game against Liberty was a career day for newly crowned ASUN Player of the Week Malik Spratling.
The Leesburg, Ga. native began the afternoon as a part of the team's Senior Day celebrations, receiving a plaque commemorating his time at Kennesaw State.
In three straight at-bats, the powerhouse hit a trifecta of home runs off of a trio of different Liberty pitchers. The hat trick of homers makes Spratling the first-ever Owl to hit three home runs in one game. In the weekend series against the Flames, he hit five-for-10 with six RBIs.
The ASUN Conference office then named the designated hitter the ASUN Player of the Week, the first accolade in the powerhouse's KSU career.
KILLER KENNEDY
Ryan Kennedy is polishing off a career season in the Kennesaw State black and gold.
In Sunday's 7-4 win against Liberty, the starting pitcher picked up his seventh victory of the season; the win was the Virginian's sixth in his last seven games.
He now posts a sub-4.00 ERA with a 3.97, having not given up an earned run last weekend. He pitched five innings, striking out six Flames and letting up only three hits.
HODGY'S HOT
Left fielder Garrett Hodges is back on track in a big way after his performance in the weekend series against Liberty.
The man considered as the team captain for the Owls hit five-for-11 with six RBIs in the three games and his hits could not have been more clutch.
In Saturday's game, the Owls were down 12-6 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Hodges came into the batter's box with the bases loaded and changed the complexion of the game with a grand slam over the right-field wall of the Stillwell Stadium.
He came up big again the next day, with a two-run bomb to extend a KSU lead to 5-1; the Owls would go on to pick up the 7-4 win.
