KENNESAW, Ga. – The Jacksonville State baseball team dropped its first road game of the 2016 with a 3-2 loss to Kennesaw State on Friday in the opening game of a three-game series with the Owls.
The Gamecocks dropped to 2-2 on the season, while KSU improved to 3-1 overall. The two teams will meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. CST in the second game of the series at KSU's Stillwell Stadium.
KSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a pair of runs in the third and the eventual game-winning run in the fifth. The Owls touched Jax State starter
Graham Officer (1-1) for all three runs with two of the three earned runs. KSU was able to put together a pair of two-out runs in the third. JSU looked to be out of the inning after a lifted fly ball by Grant Williams to Peyton Willams, Williams throw to the plate was just wide as Jeremy Howell scored on the sacrifice fly. Austin Upshaw drove in the second run on his second of three hits in the contest with an RBI single to centerfield.
Handed a 2-0 lead, KSU starter Chris Erwin (1-1) silenced the Gamecock bats through the first five innings of his six innings of work. Sophomore
Clayton Daniel was JSU's first base runner in fourth inning before the Gamecocks' first hit off of Erwin came on a leadoff double by Williams.
Williams' double ignited the JSU offense as sophomore
Taylor Hawthorne switched places with Williams with a double down the right field line. Hawthorne scored on Daniel's RBI ground out to second. Daniel extended both of his streaks in the loss as he pushed his on-base streak to 26 games and with a single in the eighth moved his current hitting streak to 13 games.
For the second consecutive outing, sophomore
Grant Chandler came in relief and held KSU scoreless in the final 3.1 innings and allowed just three of its 10 hits. Chandler's outing gave JSU a chance in the eighth as JSU had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with a two-out double by
Gavin Golsan and Daniel's single. KSU's Richard Lovelady was able to induce a ground ball from
Paschal Petrongolo to get out of the inning.
KSU's Erich Stahl worked a quick ninth to earn the save. The Owls pitching staff limited JSU to six hits – all in the final four innings.
Saturday's game will not be available on the Gamecock Sports Network due to JSU hoops coverage, but the contest will be available via live stream on Atlantic Sun TV and live stats. Both links are available at JSUGamecockSports.com.
