There has been an outbreak of Owl Fever reported in north Cobb County. Kennesaw State defeated Alabama 4-2 on Monday in Tallahassee, Fla., to become the first team in 21 years to win an NCAA Division I baseball regional in its debut.
“We won as a NAIA program in ’94 and I told the guys today, that was huge,” Kennesaw State coach Mike Sansing said. “In ’96, we won a Division II national championship and that was huge. … But I think this is going to put more of a stamp on Kennesaw State baseball.
“It’s been a long process for sure, the reclassification. But it’s great to be here today and where we are.”
The Owls, who joined Division I in 2006, next face host Louisville in the Super Regional in a best-of-three series this weekend. The Cardinals didn’t drop a game in a regional that included Kentucky, Kansas and Kent State. The winner advances to the College World Series.
Playing their fourth game in four days, the Owls (40-24), needed a patchwork pitching lineup that escaped several jams to outlast Alabama. Jordan Hillyer pitched 2 1/3 innings, James Connell followed with 2 2/3 more, Travis Bergen allowed one hit in 3 1/3 and Justin McCalvin let two men reached base before wiggling out of a jam in the ninth.
Bergen pitched 8 2/3 scoreless innings in Friday’s 1-0 win over Alabama and was named the region’s most outstanding player.
“I was out there trying to give the team a chance to win,” Bergen said. “It’s always fun going out there. It doesn’t matter on how many day’s rest.”
Jacob Bruce went 2-for-3 with a couple of doubles and the go-ahead RBI in the seventh. Max Pentecost went 1-for-3 with an RBI and Alex Liquori went for 1-for-3 with a run scored to lead Kennesaw State’s offense.
The Owls, winners of 26 of their last 28 games, took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Kal Simmons.
After stranding seven baserunners through the first four innings, Alabama finally broke through in the fifth. Wade Wass drove in Georgie Salem with a single up the middle. Wass later advanced to third on a balk by Connell and Austen Smith followed with a sacrifice fly that scored Wass for a Alabama a 2-1 lead.
It didn’t take long for Kennesaw State to respond. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Bruce laced a two-out double down the right-field line. Pentecost followed with a double down the left-field line to score Bruce and tie the game 2-2.
“Coming into today, I hadn’t had great success,” Bruce said. “I was just trying to stay strong and my teammates would pick me up all weekend. I just took one pitch at a time today and I guess it was just my time to get that big hit. The pitcher wasn’t throwing many strikes and I just had to get one strike.”
KSU took the lead in the seventh when Matt Bahnick singled and Cornell Nixon bunted pinch-runner Jeremy Howell to second. With two outs, Bruce slammed a double off the right-field wall to score Howell for a 3-2 lead.
Kennesaw State made it 4-2 in the eighth on an RBI single by Howell, which scored Chris McGowan.
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