JACKSONVILLE – Strong pitching led Jax State to a 5-4 victory over the Kennesaw State Owls on Saturday night at Jim Case Stadium.
Jax State improves to 39-11 on the season and 21-5 in Conference USA play, now with a three game lead over second place Liberty in the standings. Kennesaw State saw its five-game win streak come to an end, falling to 24-23 and 12-14 in league play.
Beau Bryans moved to 7-0 on the year and turned in seven innings with only a single earned run, fanning five in a 100-pitch outing.
Skyler Hutto earned his 12th save of the year with an inning and two-thirds of shutout baseball. KSU's Cooper McMullen fell to 2-4 on the year by giving up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Jax State opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning with a two-run homer to right field by
Brady Thomas, posting his sixth homer of the season. Thomas fired the baseball 411 feet to right, scoring
Grayson Ashe to take an early 2-0 lead.
The Gamecocks added a run in the following frame with a sacrifice fly by
Trey King, bringing
Matthew Cash home to go up 3-0.
The Owls responded in the top of the fifth inning with a four-spot, starting with a solo homer down the right field line by Charlie Jones. Following that, the Owls plated two unearned runs via wild pitches, and an RBI-single by Trenton Lyons put the Owls ahead of Jax State, 4-3.
Jax State tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI-groundout by
Luke Williams, sending Ashe home for the equalizer.
The Gamecocks then retook the lead in the following inning, when
Caleb Johnson lined a shot right down the right field line, bringing Cash home for the go-ahead score at 5-4.
In the top of the eighth inning,
Jud Files was brought in to relieve Bryans, striking out the second batter he faced, before Hutto was brought in to finish the night. Hutto got the final two batters in the eighth to strikeout, then faced four batters in the top of the ninth, with two groundouts and a fielder's choice representing the three outs to close the game.
With the victory and Liberty's loss to LA Tech earlier in the day, Jax State's magic number falls to two.
The Gamecocks look to take the series over Kennesaw State on Sunday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Senior Day will take place prior to first pitch at 12:20 p.m.
