By: by Jason Hanes
Box Score
ATLANTA - Kennesaw State got on the board first, but No. 2-ranked Georgia Tech scored the most as the Owls fell, 8-2, to the Yellow Jackets at Russ Chandler Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Owls took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as Tyler Stubblefield doubled off the top of the wall, stole third, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh Whitaker. Tech (26-3) would answer in the bottom of the inning with three runs of their own, the final blow coming on a solo home run by Matt Skole well over the wall in center field.
After the Yellow Jackets tacked on a run in the third, the Owls inched closer in the fourth when Drew Fowlkes connected for a solo home run just over the wall in right, cutting the Tech lead to 4-2.
That would be as close as the Owls (13-18) would get, as the Yellow Jackets scored two in the bottom of the fourth on a Chase Burnette home run. The score stayed the same until the eighth when the Yellow Jackets pushed two more runs across to end the scoring.
Mark Pope (4-0) went eight innings for the yellow Jackets, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out six. "I thought [Pope] did a good job on the mound for them today," said KSU head coach MIke Sansing. "He was able to get a lot of ground balls and we just weren't able to mount any threats offensively. On the other side, we fell behind a lot of hitters and just weren't as aggressive on the mound as we could have been."
Zak Griffith (1-2) took the loss for the Owls, giving up six runs on five hits in three innings. Brad Long pitched three scoreless innings for the Owls, while Jeff Brown went two-thirds of an inning without giving up a run. J.B. Johnson allowed two runs in one and one-third innings of action.
The Owls will be idle until Friday when they travel to Nashville to take on Lipscomb at Dugan Field the first game of an Atlantic Sun Conference series. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. CDT.
