Kennesaw State baseball season concludes

Release from Kenensaw State Athletics:

The Kennesaw State baseball team saw its season come to a close on early Thursday (May 21) afternoon, suffering a 6-2 defeat at the hands of Florida Golf Coast in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. With the loss, the Owls end their 2015 campaign with a 28-28 overall record.

Kennesaw State scattered seven hits on the day at Swanson Stadium, as freshman Grant Williams (2-for-4) and Alex Liquori (1-for-4, one RBI) paced the Owls’ lineup. Kal Simmons (1-for-3), Chris Erwin (1-for-4), Colin Bennett (1-for-4) and Jeremy Howell (1-for-3) also contributed on the day with a hit each in the contest.

For the second straight day, KSU found itself trailing early in the ballgame and could never recover. The Eagles, who hosted the A-Sun Tournament for the second consecutive year, plated two runs in the second and third innings to pull ahead 4-0 and never looked back in the elimination game.

Travis Bergen (6-4), who made his 14th start on the mound, bounced back after allowing four runs (three earned) throughout the first three innings of play settled down with back-to-back scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth frames, not allowing a hit during the span.

With the stretch of scoreless frames from Bergen, the Owls were able to cut the lead in half by scoring their first runs of the tournament with a crooked two in the top of the sixth inning. KSU capitalized on a couple of FGCU miscues as Simmons led things off with a single and advanced to second on a throwing error. Simmons, a Second Team All-Conference selection, then worked around the bases and crossed home on a pass ball for the Owls’ first run in two days.

The sixth inning continued when junior outfielder Liquori hit a two-out RBI double down the right field line, scoring senior Chris McGowan –who reached earlier on a walk— from second base to cut the lead to 4-2.

The two-run deficit would be the closest KSU would get, as the Eagles came back with two runs in the bottom of half of the frame to pull ahead by four.  A two-run RBI double off the bat of Nick Rivera plated FGCU’s two runs in the inning to push the Eagles’ lead to 6-2.

Bergen finished his day allowing six runs (five earned) on eight hits over 6.0 innings of work. The junior lefthander, who was named a First Team All-Conference selection earlier in the week, struck out two and walked four in his outing and was credited with the hard-fought loss.

In all, Kennesaw State used five pitchers on the day as AJ Moore, Mason Ward, Benjamin Bancroft and Will Lowmancombined to relieve Bergen of his duties. The bullpen combined to allow just one hit and no runs over two innings in the Owls’ final contest of the 2015 season.