by David Almeda (Staff Writer)
With a road trip to the Gwinnett Braves’ Coolray Field, KSU’s baseball team had a rare chance to continue its recent hot streak on a big stage; fittingly, with a clash against one of the state’s most recognizable teams.
Catcher Max Pentecost brought home two runs and extended his conference-leading hit streak to 23 games, and KSU (22-20, 6-9 A-Sun) defeated Georgia 3-1 on Tuesday night to sweep the season series and extend its winning streak to a season-high eight games.
KSU defeated the Bulldogs (21-19-1) 10-7 in Athens on Feb. 18.
“It feels great,” Pentecost said. “We’ve had a rough beginning of the season. The past two or three weeks, we’ve really picked it up playing good ball. We knew we could compete with them. We just had to come out here and play our game.”
After a single and stolen base from Jacob Bruce, an RBI single from Pentecost gave the Owls an 1-0 lead in the first inning.
“It’s fun to watch, not only from the offensive standpoint, but he does so much on defense,” head coach Mike Sansing said. “The blocking, the throwing guys out, handling the pitching…he comes to play every day.”
In the third, KSU looked to gain some insurance. Dylan Ivey led off the inning with a single. After an error on Bulldogs second baseman Mike Bell allowed Kal Simmons to reach first, a wild pitch allowed him and Ivey to advance. Bruce and Pentecost then drove in two more runs with a single and a double to give the Owls a 3-0 advantage.
Georgia was able to get on the board with an RBI single in the seventh, but they couldn’t scratch enough of their 10 stranded runners across the plate as KSU hung on for the win.
Despite getting into a few jams during the contest, KSU’s pitching was solid, striking out nine while walking two. Starter Chris Erwin earned his third win of the season and closer Justin McCalvin earned his eighth save.
Gabe Friese entered in relief for Erwin in the fourth inning and led the Owls with five strike outs, while James Connell and Will Lowman set up McCalvin with solid, late relief.
“I thought our guys played pretty well,” Sansing said. “We didn’t make any errors, which has been something we’ve had some issues with. I thought we pitched extremely well. Got some hits there in the early innings, didn’t have much going on in the late half, but I guess three was enough tonight.”
The Owls will now attempt to extend their winning streak to nine games when they play host to East Tennessee State on Friday at Stillwell Stadium.
