Box Score (PDF)

Spartanburg, S.C. – Travis Bergen tied a career-high with nine strikeouts and Kennesaw State pounded out 19 hits en route to a 12-3 victory over USC Upstate Friday afternoon from Harley Park. 

Bergen pitched six innings and allowed two runs on five hits to earn his fifth win of the season. Will Solomon, Nathan Harsh and Andrew Austin each pitched an inning in relief.

Kennesaw State and USC Upstate were scoreless through four innings, but the Owls erupted for six runs on six hits in the fifth inning. Kal Simmons started the inning with a single to center and took second when Jacob Bruce followed with a bunt single. After taking third on a wild pitch, Simmons scored the first run of the game on a throwing error on a failed pickoff attempt of Bruce. Bruce ended up at third base on the error and scored in the following at-bat on a sacrifice fly from Max Pentecost. The Owls also received RBIs from Alex Liquori, Chris McGowan, Matt Bahnick and Dylan Ivey later in the inning.

McGowan picked up his second RBI of the game when his sacrifice fly in the sixth inning scored Pentecost to put the Owls ahead 7-0. Brennan Morgan added an RBI single one batter later to account for the second run of the inning.

Upstate answered with two runs in its half of the sixth inning on an RBI single from Luke Weber and an RBI groundout from Stephen Dowling. Weber finished the game 3-for-4 and moved into seventh place all-time at Upstate with 230 career hits.

Kennesaw State got RBIs from Bruce and Pentecost and scored a third run on a passed ball in the top of the seventh inning to take an 11-2 lead.

Drew Fisher scored the final run for Upstate when he scored from second base on a fielding error on Simmons in the seventh inning.

Upstate and Kennesaw State put the finishing touches on a three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m. from Harley Park.   

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