By: KSU Sports Information Department
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ATLANTA, Ga. – Ronnie Freeman tied the Kennesaw State record by hitting in his 41st consecutive game, but the Owls saw their three-game winning streak snapped as they fell to No. 24-ranked Georgia Tech, 7-4, on Tuesday night at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Freeman tied Kennesaw State great and former Texas Rangers outfielder Jason Jones for the school record with a run scoring single past third in the top of the fifth inning. Freeman now has the 15th longest hit streak in the history of the NCAA and the sixth longest Division I streak.
The Owls (9-3) led early when Drew Fowlkes launched a solo home run in the top of the second inning. The Yellow Jackets answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning and added two more runs in the bottom of the third as they chased starter Travis Dean (1-1) after only two and two-third innings.
Trailing 5-1, Kennesaw State battled back in the top of the fifth inning when they scored three times. Will Howard led off with a single and Bucky Smith followed with a walk that set up a Jordan Craft sacrifice bunt. A wild pitch brought home Howard and a sacrifice fly by Aaron Dobbs scored Smith to bring the Owls within two runs of Georgia Tech. Freeman pulled Kennesaw State closer on the record-tying single.
The Kennesaw State bullpen was effective once again, allowing just one earned run over five and one-third innings, however the staff walked nine batters in the game with three of those walks coming in to score.
“We let them have way too many base runners tonight,” said head coach Mike Sansing on the nine walks issued by the Owls staff. “You can’t give any team basically nine singles, especially a team like Georgia Tech. although we did a pretty good job of controlling damage.”
The normally reliable Alan Busenitz walked the first two batters he faced when he entered the game in the sixth inning. However, the junior regrouped and struck out Jake Davies and Zane Evans with the bases loaded to keep the Black and Gold within a run. Busenitz ended the night with four walks and four strikeouts in an inning and two-thirds.
Jordan Dean tossed two and two-third scoreless innings, allowing three hits with two walks and a season high three strikeouts while J.B. Johnson pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Georgia Tech (9-4) pushed across runs in the seventh and eighth innings to go ahead by three runs before the Owls mounted a final rally in the top of the ninth inning. Howard reached on an infield single with two outs and Bucky Smith walked before Yellow Jackets reliever Luke Bard got Jordan Craft to ground to third to end the game. Bard earned his first save of the year with four innings of one-hit relief as starter Matt Grimes (2-1) picked up the win, allowing four runs on six hits over five innings.
“We just couldn’t put together back-to-back hits,” added Sansing. “And we didn’t do much to challenge offensively.”
The Owls will be back in action on Wednesday afternoon when they play No. 2-ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 EST and can be heard live on www.ksuowls.com.
