by Mike Foster (Sports Editor)
Travis Bergen stood in corner of the Kennesaw State dugout, restlessly waving his arms in circles as he watched his teammates try to add insurance runs at the plate. Bergen, a sophomore from McDonough, Ga., was just heating up, recording all three of his strikeouts against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 7th and 8th frames. KSU led SEC foe Alabama 1-0 in the 9th, and stud reliever Justin McCalvin seemed primed to record his 15th save of the season.
McCalvin did just that, but only after Bergen took care of outs 25 and 26. Known for its offense, KSU found a way to win with its pitching as the Owls earned their first-ever victory at the NCAA DI Baseball Championship regionals with a 1-0 defeat of the Crimson Tide Friday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahssee, Fla.
The Owls (38-21) have now won 24 of their last 25 games and will face either host Florida State (43-15) or a familiar face in Georgia Southern (39-21) tomorrow. The Seminoles and Eagles square off at 6 p.m. today, with the loser moving to face the Crimson Tide in an elimination game.
Bergen’s long outing was helped by the eagerness of Alabama’s batters, as aggressive showings at the plate helped Bergen’s pitch count stay nearly half of his counterpart, Spencer Turnbull, throughout the contest.
The Owls patience at the plate paid off in the top of the fifth. Brennan Morgan reached on a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Matt Bahnick and then moved to third on a wild pitch, while eight and nine hitters Justin Motley and true freshman Cornell Nixon both drew walks to load the bases with one out. Kal Simmons earned the RBI, bringing home Morgan on a fly out before Jacob Bruce grounded out to end the inning.
KSU had a chance to extend the lead with two outs in the 7th, when Morgan and Nixon both stood in scoring position via another Bahnick-sacrifice and Nixon-walk, but Simmons struck out looking.
Bergen (8-4) went into the bottom of the 8th with zero strike outs, but just a walk to his name, when he struck out Matthew Goodson and Georgie Salem. He put himself one out away from his first career complete game, forcing two consecutive fly outs to Alabama’s three and four hitters, but was pulled by head coach Mike Sansing after giving up a deep double to Austen Smith.
McCalvin entered with the game-tying run in scoring position and threw just four pitches to end the game on a fly out to foul territory in right field.
Bergen finished with 121 pitches thrown, five hits, three strike outs and one walk.
KSU did not have a multi-hit batter in the game, with Max Pentecost going 0-for-4 at the plate for the second time in three games. Pentecost entered Friday with the second-highest batting average in the country and the best in the NCAA championship field at .423.
KSU will face either Georgia Southern or Florida State tomorrow at 5 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN3.
