Senior baseball players pose for photos during senior day festivities. Photo courtesy of KSU Athletics
Kennesaw State baseball lost its final series of the regular season but salvaged the series finale over the weekend against Missouri State at Mickey Dunn Stadium at Henssler Financial Field.
The Bears got off to a quick start in Thursday’s series opener, scoring two in the first inning. Down 2-0, the Owls got on the board on a Shamaar McDuffie RBI single in the second, cutting the deficit in half.
Mo State extended its lead in the third inning on a two-run home run by Carter Bergman. Trenton Lyons answered for KSU in the bottom half of the inning, making the game a 4-2 lead for the Bears.
Mo State added another run in the fourth inning and went up 5-2. The Owls added a run in the home half of the seventh but were unable to find any more offense, losing 5-3.
On Friday, KSU was the team with the hot start, going up 2-0 on Charlie Jones’ two-run homer in the opening frame. The Owls went up 3-1 in the second on an RBI groundout by Grayson McCollum.
KSU looked to be in control until the seventh when the Bears exploded for four runs, first on a three-run home run by Logan Fyffe, then on a solo homer by Curry Sutherland to take a 5-3 lead, which is where the score stayed for the remainder of the contest.
Saturday’s game began the same way Friday’s did for Jones, giving the Owls an early advantage on Senior Day off of his three-run home run in the first inning.
“I think that just took a lot of pressure off everybody,” coach Ryan Coe said. “That was huge to have that happen early.”
Mo State got on the board with a sacrifice fly in the third before KSU added three more runs in the third and fourth innings, including RBI singles by Jamarie Brooks and Lyons, respectively, to give the Owls a 6-1 lead after four innings.
The Bears made things interesting for a while in the fifth inning, hitting a pair of home runs to shrink the KSU lead to just 6-5.
The Owls answered in the bottom of the sixth on a three-run homer by Cooper Williams, extending the KSU lead to 9-5.
Lyons and Williams added to their RBI totals in the following inning, stretching the Owl lead to 12-6 and closing out the victory in a game that was a very impressive offensive showing for KSU.
“[The offense] was great, because we’ve talked a little bit about having trouble getting guys on base,” Coe said. “It was really nice to see us finish off the innings today.”
The Owls finished off the regular season with an overall record of 25-26 and a 13-17 record in Conference USA play. KSU finished the year at seventh place in the conference standings, good for a spot in the CUSA Baseball Championship Tournament, hosted at Mickey Dunn Stadium.
The opening games of the tournament will take place on May 20.
