TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Kennesaw State baseball team earned a trip to the NCAA Regional Championship game with a 13-5 victory over Georgia Southern in 11 innings late on Saturday night.
The Owls have now won nine straight and 25-of-26 with the late night victory, tying the largest margin of victory in an NCAA Postseason extra-inning game. KSU will now face the winner of the Alabama vs. Georgia Southern elimination game on Sunday, June 1, at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN3.
“It was an unbelievable game,” said Kennesaw State head coach Mike Sansing. “I can’t say enough about the guy’s competitiveness. We’re here for 10 hours and it wears you down for sure. Overall, you look at it, 13 guys left on base which was critical for us until we got into extra innings. We had some scoring opportunities that we didn’t get and obviously we had the huge inning. Our pitching did pretty well. I was happy with all our guys.”
Way singled in Pentecost before the end of the 11th, KSU scoring eight runs on six hits to go up 13-5. McCalvin then slammed the door on the Eagles, earning his fifth win of the season after the 1-2-3 inning.
“We never really got down on ourselves,” said Morgan. “I don’t know if our team has ever really been down or out of a fight. We’ve been down two, three runs, we were down eight runs to Georgia State at one point and came back and won that one. It’s almost like we’re expecting someone to step up and someone is always stepping up. It’s something special have going on and you can’t put your finger on it. But everyone is stepping up at the right times.”
KSU fell just one hit shy of tying a season-high with 20 hits in the ballgame, four of those coming from Pentecost. The catcher drove in a pair of runs with a double and two walks as well.
KSU will take on either the Crimson Tide or the Eagles tomorrow, needing just one win to advance to the NCAA Super Regional round.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State baseball news, follow the team on Twitter @KSUOwlNation and @KSUOwlsBaseball or by liking Kennesaw State University on Facebook. #goksuowls.