STATESBORO, Ga. – The Kennesaw State Owls jumped out to a 5-2 lead after the second inning and held on to defeat the Georgia Southern Eagles 8-5 in the final home game of the season at J.I. Clements Stadium.
Pitcher Chris Erwin plated two runs in the second inning and scored the third run of a three-run first inning after he was hit by a pitch. Erwin and finished with two hits and picked up the win on the mound.
Erwin (5-4) tied a school record with 15 strikeouts and allowed five runs over 7.1 innings. The sophomore lefthander allowed three runs over the fourth and fifth innings but finished strong, retiring eight of the last 9 batters he faced.
The Eagles (28-24) scored two runs in the bottom of the second on a
Cody Lanford double and a
C.J. Brazil single before cutting the Owls' (27-24) lead to two runs on
Ryan Cleveland's 10th home run of the season in the fourth inning.
Kennesaw State got a run back in the top half of the fifth inning on an Alex Liquori solo shot.
Georgia Southern pulled within a run in the bottom half of the fifth inning after Cleveland delivered a two-RBI single back up the middle and over the glove of an extended Kal Simmons.
The Owls tacked on two more runs to their lead in the eighth inning on Corey Greeson double and a bases loaded hit by pitch.
Will Lowman walked two batters but struck out a pair including
Chase Griffin to end the game. Lowman (7) picked up the save in an inning of work.
Matt Geiger (1-5) worked two thirds of an inning and allowed three runs – two earned – on a hit and a walk. He was tagged with the loss after the Owls scored three runs in the first inning on a steal of home, a single and an error.
Baseball wraps up the regular with a three-game series at Georgia State. The final conference series of the year gets underway Thursday and runs through Saturday.
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