In debut season of $12.3M facility, KSU baseball has high expectations
It looks like Kennesaw State will break in its new baseball facility with a contending team.
The Owls, who will christen Mickey Dunn Stadium this weekend, were picked to finish third by Conference USA coaches. The program has high expectations after exceeding last year’s sixth-place prognostication to go 31-27 and finish third in the conference.
“I’d hate for it to be any other way,” Kennesaw State coach Ryan Coe said. “We put those expectations on ourselves. That’s what we expect out of our program, and it’s been a real good program for a long time. We want to continue to keep those expectations going and continue to take it to the next level.”
The Owls started baseball in 1984 and won the 1994 NAIA World Series. They won the 1996 NCAA Division II championship, began competing in Division I in 2006 and went to the NCAA Regionals in 2022. Coe, the program’s first All-American, is in his fifth season as head coach.
Excitement surrounding new stadium — with a supersized KSU logo in center field — has been growing. The new $12.3 million facility, named in honor of the former KSU baseball player and major donor, expands the seating capacity to 1,500 and includes a new turf playing surface, better lighting and fencing, new below-ground dugouts, hospitality boxes, and expanded press/media areas. Mickey Dunn Stadium will host the CUSA tournament in May.
KSU will open the season against Evansville at 4 p.m. Friday. The Owls host Marshall at 4 p.m. Saturday, then play back-to-back games Sunday against Marshall at 11 a.m. and Evansville at 3 p.m.
Kennesaw State returns 22 players from last season’s team, which reached the semifinals of the CUSA tournament. The Owls brought in 16 new faces, including five with experience at the Power Four level, and 10 freshmen.
KSU did not have a player named to the All-CUSA preseason team, but authority source Perfect Game included infielder Wesley Alig (.312, 37 RBIs) and freshman pitcher/infielder Josh Gibbs on its list.
“Wes is just steady,” Coe said. “He can run, he’s got a little sneaky pope, can play multiple positions. He’s one of those team leader guys. Even when he was a freshman, the older guys just took to him. It’s not easy to find guys like that.”
Alig is joined by other returning position players Chris Cole (.286), Cooper Williams (.306, seven homers), Shamaar McDuffie and Aaron Posey. Each started at least 44 games last season. Cole played through an injury last year; he still stole 23 bases. Coe said Cole would likely have been drafted if healthy.
Most of the players on the roster are proficient at more than one position, playing multiple infield spots or all three outfield positions — some both.
“That’s kind of a theme with our team, to recruit athletic kids who can move around and play different places and do a lot of different things,” Coe said. “Josh came up through (the) East Cobb (baseball program), played on a lot of high-profile teams, was a Perfect Game All-American and a really good baseball player.”
Returning pitchers include left-hander Ryan Gold (3-4, 6.15 ERA), and right-handers Ty Bayer (2-3, 5.70) and Harry Cain (4-3, 4.67), and each will be in the mix. Expectations are high for Georgia Tech transfer Cooper McMullen, who Coe said “has a chance to make a big impact.”
Daniel Powell (7-2, 4.50), who led KSU with 26 appearances, was named to the preseason watch list for Stopper of the Year.
“I think the way guys train now, it’s finding guys that can give you length,” Coe said. “I think this is that kind of staff. We have a lot of ability, and we’re trying to piece it together and get innings. You almost have to have two starters for every game, because you’re hoping to get two, three or four innings out of every starter and then bring in a guy hoping to get three or four out of him, and maybe one bullpen guy. That’s the way pitching is these days.”
Kennesaw State has four other transfers from Power Four programs: infielder-outfielder Charlie Jones from Georgia, infielder-outfielder Trenton Lyons from NC State, and pitchers Thorpe Musci and Cole Royer from Georgia Tech. The most experience belongs to Jones; he played nine games for the Bulldogs last season, but totaled 61 games the two previous years at Air Force.
Among KSU’s losses were all-region Donovan Cash, who graduated as the school’s home run king, and pitcher Braden Osbolt, who was drafted in the sixth round and signed with the Cincinnati Reds.
Kennesaw State’s aggressive nonconference schedule includes a three-game series at Florida, a three-game home series against West Virginia, home-and-home series against Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern, West Georgia and Mercer, and a single game against Georgia State. Dallas Baptist, the preseason pick to win the CUSA title, comes to Kennesaw on April 2-4.
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
