by Mike Foster (Sports Editor)
KSU’s star catcher Max Pentecost was named the Atlantic Sun Conference’s player of the year on Tuesday, while six of his teammates also reeled in awards from the league on the eve of the A-Sun Baseball Championship. KSU will face East Tennessee State in the first game of the tournament tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET.
RELATED: A-Sun Baseball Championship information.
Pentecost, who leads the nation in hits with 97 (.422 batting average) and has the longest hit-streak in the country at 35, has spent the last few weeks reeling in numerous award mentions, including being named a semifinalist for the Dike Howser Award, which the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association gives to the best player in the country.
“It’s an overall blessing,” Pentecost told ksuowls.com Tuesday. “All the hard work we put in and time and effort paid off. I’m glad I could receive this award and it means a lot to me and the team.”
Pentecost was followed by late-reliever Justin McCalvin, who was named to the A-Sun first-team after recording 12 saves during the season.
Here’s a look at the complete list of A-Sun honorees from the Owls’ roster:
C Max Pentecost (Jr.) | A-Sun Player of the Year | Season stats: .422 batting avg, 97 hits, eight home runs, 54 RBIs, 21 doubles, 15 steals/17 attempts
P Justin McCalvin (RS Jr.) | A-Sun All-Conference First Team | Season stats: 2.12 ERA, 12 saves, 51 innings pitched, 31 appearances, 3-3 record
SS Kal Simmons (So.) | A-Sun All-Conference Second Team
OF Bo Way (Sr.) | A-Sun All-Conference Second Team
OF Alex Liquori (So.) | A-Sun All-Conference Second Team
P Jordan Hillyer (So.) | A-Sun All-Conference Second Team
P Gabe Friese (Fr.) | A-Sun All-Conference Freshman Team
P Chris Erwin (Fr.) | A-Sun All-Conference Freshman Team
Q&A with head coach Mike Sansing
KSU (33-21, 17-9 A-Sun) begins play as the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament tomorrow morning against No. 6 ETSU. The Sentinel caught up with head coach Mike Sansing after the team concluded practice Tuesday afternoon.
The Sentinel: Starting off, talk about the championship field.
Sansing: Heading into tournament play, it’s obviously a new season and we just kind of have to go day-to-day. If you look at the teams that are in the field, there’s a lot of good pitching for each team. That’s the obstacle that you’ve got to look at. Can you get through somebody’s number one pitcher. That’s kind of how these tournaments are set up to where you can get your number one in and maybe bring him back at the end, but you know I feel good with the way our team has played–obviously in the last month–and hopefully we carry that through the tournament.
TS: It’s been a crazy few months with the winning streak and conference winning streak and things the individual players have been doing. When the conference season started and the team was kind of in a ski and completely turned a corner, have you ever seen anything like that in your coaching career and in your memory how do you compare this feat?
S: I can’t say I recall a team starting as bad as we did and finishing as good as we have, I’m sure there’s been some. It has been an interesting process this year and when you talk about turning the corner, it was a clear one-eighty for sure. We were happy to see our team bounce back because it was a difficult, no doubt about it, and I’m proud of our guys for how they have bounced back. It’s all about the tournament now and we have to go from there.
TS: Individually Max Pentecost has been named to countless awards and recognition. He just got A-Sun player of the year.
S: He’s been unbelievable. He’s simply done it all. He’s really led our team, and when you’re winning games you’ve got to have guys doing those kind of things, and he’s just been able to have a tremendous year and people are excited about him being the player of the year–well deserved.
TS: The past few seasons this has been a team that has kind of hovered around .500 but made it to the title game two years in a row. Talk about that cultural or focus change that may have happened, and do you have a sense of what that is?
S: Yeah, we talked about that. I wish we knew what made that happen, but I definitely think the last couple of years the team has gotten better through the course of the year and carried momentum through the tournmanent. This team is on that pace, if not better, considering where we started. To answer your question I’m not sure if there’s a certain thing I could tell you that has gotten us to the championship game the last couple of years, but I guess we just kept battling and had some grinders in the program and guys who definitely jut have a will to win; I think that’s been a big part of it.
Tournament Preview
KSU heads into the conference tournament in Fort Myers, Fla., sizzling hot. The Owls have won 19 of their last 20, and before last Wednesday had the nation’s longest winning streak at 16 games. KSU has also won 15-straight conference contests after starting 2-9 in league play.
The Owls will hope to carry that momentum into a tournament that has been kind in recent years. Despite going 34-25 and 30-30 in the last two seasons, respectively, the Owls advanced to the conference title game and fell just short of the championship both times.
Here’s a list of the tournament seeding:
No. 1 — Florida Gulf Coast (36-20, 19-8 A-Sun)
No. 2 — Mercer (38-15, 18-9 A-Sun)
No. 3 — KSU (33-21, 17-9 A-Sun)
No. 4 — Lipscomb (30-26, 17-10 A-Sun)
No. 5 — Jacksonville (20-31, 13-13 A-Sun)
No. 6 — ETSU (26-28, 13-13 A-Sun)
No. 7 — Stetson (24-32, 13-14 A-Sun)
No. 8 — North Florida (22-29, 11-16 A-Sun)
Tournament play will consist of a double-elimination format, with the championship game to be broadcast on ESPN3. Here’s a link to the complicated bracket.
A-Sun teams in the big dance?
The winner of the A-Sun title will be guaranteed a spot in the NCAA DI Baseball Championship, but it’s likely Mercer (if someone else wins the title) sneaks in as an at-large; KSU will likely have to win the conference to make it, as the Owls are sitting on the cusp with an RPI rating of 66 (64 teams, including 34 at-large selections from a committee, qualify for the national tournament). Mercer owns an RPI rating of 29. KSU’s in-state rivals have an absurd 24-4 home record. Florida Gulf Coast sits at No. 73 in the RPI rankings.
