The best baseball season in Kennesaw State’s young NCAA Division I history ended Saturday night at Louisville.
The Owls were swept in the best-of-three super regional with a 7-4 defeat. The Cardinals celebrated with a dog pile on the field after earning their second consecutive trip to the College World Series and third overall.
KSU will have to wait for its chance at that kind of glory but made a strong showing in its first NCAA tournament at the Division I level. The Owls arrived at the cusp of the CWS by twice beating SEC power Alabama to win the Tallahassee regional.
The Owls (40-24) couldn’t repeat that magic in Louisville but gained fans during their unexpected run.
"I think it really put us on the map," KSU junior catcher Max Pentecost said. "We've had some good years in the past but this year exceeded all of that. We were up here with the top 16 teams in nation. We were able to play on TV. People from school supported us. I think it really will just kick-start the program"
The Owls had leads of 1-0 and 4-2 on Saturday but ace left-hander Travis Bergen gave both of them back. Bergen, the most outstanding player of the Tallahassee regional, allowed seven earned runs over 5 2/3 innings.
Bergen allowed two runs in the third inning and three in the fifth, including Nick Solak’s two-run home run that put Louisville ahead for good at 5-4. Cole Sturgeon chased Bergen with a two-out, two-run single in the sixth.
Bergen had allowed just one run in his previous five outings. He didn’t start Game 1 on Friday after throwing 53 pitches in relief on Monday following 121 pitches in a shutout victory on May 30.
"I thought his velocity was up," Owls coach Mike Sansing said. "His slider was not as sharp as it has been. He was battling for us. We talked to him throughout the week and he said he felt good. I thought he threw pretty well for us."
After scoring four runs on six hits through three innings, the Owls had just five hits over the final six. KSU managed only three baserunners over the final four innings, none past second.
Louisville supporters among the record crowd of 6,007 at Jim Patterson Stadium revved up in anticipation with each out and erupted when hard-throwing closer Nick Burdi struck out Bo Way to end the game.
"Offensively it was a struggle for us at times," Sansing said. "They kept throwing that change-up and off-speed and we didn’t do a good job adjusting to it. But (Lousville) did an excellent job. We battled but we just weren’t able to push a few across late."
The Owls put pressure on the Cardinals (50-15), who trailed in both games of the series after never falling behind while winning their regional here last weekend.
KSU shortstop Kal Simmons led off the bottom of the first inning with a double and scored on Pentecost’s single. After the Cardinals took the lead with two runs in the top of the third, Pentecost struck again with a bases-loaded double that scored two runs in the bottom of the inning and Jacob Bruce scored on Chris McGowan’s groundout for a 4-2 lead.
The Owls couldn’t hold it. Louisville’s No. 9 hitter, Zach Lucas, led off the fifth with a double and went to third on a sacrifice. Sturgeon scored Lucas with a single and then Solak launched Bergen’s first pitch over the left field wall.
The Owls couldn't stage one final comeback to extend their special season.
"Starting the conference tournament we had the mindset that we wanted to get to a regional and, once we got there, we would have a really good chance of getting to a super regional," Simmons said. "I know up until that last inning we believed would get to Omaha (site of the CWS). Something about our team with our determination and drive to win and come back--I've never been a part of a team like this. It's really impressive. I enjoyed every second of it."
