Mike Foster (Sports Editor)
You win some, you lose some.
That was the theme for KSU’s baseball team Thursday night, as the Atlantic Sun Conference’s player of the year, Max Pentecost, lost the nation’s longest hitting streak after going 0-4 at the plate. Pentecost might have been set up for one more at-bat, but closer Justin McCalvin brushed off two rare earned runs to end a nail-biter against Stetson at Swanson Stadium, earning the save in a 7-5 win in the second round of the A-Sun Championship.
KSU (35-21), now 2-0 in the double-elimination bracket, is in prime position to advance to the A-Sun title game for the third consecutive season. The Owls have won 17-straight conference games and will have a rematch against either East Tennessee State or the Hatters on Saturday at 10 a.m. Mercer, which was poised to be there in the later rounds of the tournament, was eliminated by ETSU earlier in Thursday’s action.
McCalvin (3-3, 13 saves on the season) didn’t have his usual stuff in the 9th against the Hatters. After entering earlier in the 8th to replace Nathan Harsh, who had three runs scored to his name, McCalvin walked the first two batters he faced before surrendering a double, putting two runners in scoring position with one out in a 7-4 ballgame. Stetson’s Garrett Russini followed with strong contact to right-center, but a hopeful game-tying home run settled into a sacrifice fly. After walking Robert Bruce to put runners on the corners, McCalvin forced a fly out in foul territory to clinch the win.
Harsh wasn’t helped in the previous frame. Despite earning three runs, two were scored when KSU’s outfielder Justin Motley misjudged a fly ball to right field from Stetson’s Kyle Pitts. Motley dove for the ball, rather than blocking, which allowed two runners to score and Pitts to reach third. Jordan Schultz singled, scoring Pitts, to prompt KSU’s head coach Mike Sansing to replace Harsh with his all-conference late reliever.
Motley helped himself out in the bottom of the frame, bringing home Chris McGowan on an RBI single and then scoring himself via an RBI single from true freshman Cornell Nixon. Motley had two RBIs, while Bo Way recorded his seventh hit of the tournament, going 3-for-4 with an RBI.
KSU’s starting pitcher Travis Bergen (7-4) pitched seven scoreless as KSU built a 5-0 lead. Bergen scattered six hits and walked one in 110 pitches.
Stetson was led by Taylor Cockrell, who went 3-for-5 with an RBI.
Heading into the contest, Pentecost, who’s projected to be a top-20 pick in this year’s MLB draft, had reached on a hit in 36 consecutive games.
