By Mason Wittner, Staff Writer
Alex Liquori stepped to the plate with two outs in bottom of the eleventh inning with the tying run on third base and winning run on second as Kennesaw State trailed No. 21 Georgia Tech, 7-6, Tuesday.
Liquori bounced a ground ball towards third base and was thrown out at first as the Owls (9-9) upset fell short in the three and a half hour battle with the Yellow Jackets (15-5).
KSU took a 5-3 lead into the top of the ninth. Georgia Tech had runners on second and third with one out when sophomore Keenan Lewis hit an RBI ground out to the shortstop, scoring Connor Justus and pulling Georgia Tech within one run. Down to their last strike, freshman Kel Johnson singled to left field on a 1-2 count, scoring sophomore Brandon Gold to tie the game 5-5.
The Yellow Jackets used a throwing error by sophomore relief pitcher Chris Erwin and a sacrifice fly-out to left field to extend their lead to 7-5 in the top of the eleventh inning.
The Owls pulled within one run in the bottom of the eleventh behind RBI groundout from Griffin Helms that scored Kal Simmons.
“This was disappointing,” KSU head coach Mike Sansing said. “I thought we battled back, got the lead, and I felt like we should have finished that thing out but weren’t able to. So, it was just disappointing more than anything.”
KSU freshman pitcher AJ Moore started on the bump for the Owls. Moore gave up five hits, three runs in six innings pitched. The right-hander surrendered two of those runs coming in the top of the first inning.
“I thought he (Moore) threw well,” Sansing said. “He had the first inning, and then after that he battled and made some great pitches. A very good performance.”
The energy of the game was electric from the first at-bat as KSU junior Justin Motely made a tremendous diving catch in center field for the first out of the game. The Yellow Jackets managed to scrape together a pair of two-out runs to take a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Owls responded in the bottom of the third inning as second baseman Grant Williams lined a comebacker at the pitcher, who overthrew the first baseman allowing Chris McGowan to score from second base. Simmons later singled up the middle, scoring Williams and tying the game 2-2.
KSU took the lead in the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back RBI singles from Williams and Simmons to put the Owls up 4-2.
The Yellow Jackets cut their deficit down to one run in the seventh inning as Justus scored on a wild pitch. The Owls picked up a run in the bottom of the eighth as Erwin reached on a fielder’s choice, scoring McGowan to give the Owls a 5-3 advantage.
KSU will travel to Cullowhee, North Carolina Wednesday for a game against Western Carolina (7-9) before returning home for a weekend series against William & Mary (10-5) beginning Friday.
