Category | Sports

Owls sweep Mercer

Published on April 21, 2009 by Justin Hobday

In-state rivals no match

The KSU baseball team swept a three-game series against the Mercer Bears at Claude Smith Field to improve their conference leading record to 13-4.

Kyle Clayton and the Owls maintain a half game lead for first place in the A-Sun Conference. Photo by James Richmond.

Pitching aces Kyle Heckathorn and Chad Jenkins once again led the Owls to wins in games one and two. KSU completed the sweep with an extra-inning come-from-behind victory.

An RBI double by Jon White, RBI bunt singles from both Jacob Robbins and Tyler Stubblefield and an RBI single by Ric Bishop in the fourth inning provided the four runs the Owls needed to win the first contest, 7-3.

Heckathorn allowed three runs on six hits while striking out eight in seven and two-thirds innings of work. Kenny Faulk entered the game with two outs in the eighth and the tying run at the plate. Faulk coaxed a pop-out, and went on to earn his third save of the year after retiring the side in the ninth inning.

Jenkins pitched his second complete-game shutout in as many starts to lead the Owls to a 9-0 victory in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday.  The ace from Canton, Ga. allowed four hits and struck out six batters, only needing 92 pitches to finish off the Bears.

“Chad was just hitting every spot on every pitch,” said head coach Mike Sansing “His fastball had some serious sink action. His slider was in the zone. He just had really, really good stuff with great command.”

Jace Whitmer set the KSU division I single-season homerun record when he connected for his 10th long-ball of the season in the seventh inning of game two of the series.

The third game of the series proved to be a tougher victory for the Owls.

A Drew Fowlkes homerun in the top of the ninth inning tied the game at six, and the Owls went on to score five more runs in the tenth to take an 11-6 win.

“I thought it was a character building game from the stand point that we got down a couple of times, but we were able to come back,” said Sansing.

The Owls improved their overall record to 21-4, and maintained a half-game lead in the A-Sun standings over FGCU.

Mid-week walk off

Andrew Martin drove in the game-winning run in an extra-inning 5-4 win over Jacksonville State at Stillwell Stadium Wednesday, April 15.

The Owls loaded the bases, and Martin delivered when he smacked a hanging curveball into right field scoring Jacob Robbins who led the inning off with a walk.

“The bases were loaded so I didn’t have to do anything too special to get a hit,” said Martin.

The Owls went to the bottom of the ninth down by one run. Stubblefield led the inning with a double, and two batters later Martin Baker tied the game with a double of his own.

Faulk earned the win after striking out three of the six batters he faced coming on in relief in the ninth inning.

“Kenny [Faulk] comes in there, and he just wants to make outs,” said Martin.

The Gamecocks used three solo-homeruns to go up 3-1 after four innings.  The Owls tied the game again in the fifth when Jordan Craft sent a towering drive over the left-field wall.  JSU went back up by one in the sixth inning to set up the late inning dramatics.

Can’t hit this

Pitcher Chad Jenkins has only allowed 11 hits in his last three starts, and he has not been scored on in 27 and one-third innings.