ALBANY, GA – The Kentucky State University baseball team had a nine-game winning streak snapped, and its season come to an end Friday as the Thorobreds dropped a pair of games to higher ranked teams in the 2019 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament.
#1 ALBANY STATE 9, #4 KENTUCKY STATE 4
Kentucky State outhit the host and top-seeded Golden Rams, but Albany State managed to get the big hits when needed in posting the 9-4 victory.
Albany State opened up a 5-0 lead after two innings before the Thorobreds attempted to claw back into the game.
A sacrifice fly by sophomore
Dom Lawson (Bloomfield, KY) brought home a run in the third. Senior
Jordan Ransom (Ringgold, GA) started the fourth with a homer, and then freshman
Jace Wilson (Shepherdsville, KY) doubled home another run to pull to within, 5-3.
Unfortunately, Kentucky State couldn't get any closer as the Golden Rams tallied a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth.
Junior reliever
Brandon Mason (Chattanooga, TN), for the second day in a row, was phenomenal in relief to allow the Thorobreds the opportunity to pull off the upset. He hurled four innings of hitless relief with three strikeouts. Mason struck out nine and yielded just one hit in seven innings of scoreless relief in the SIAC tournament.
Junior
Brady Bibbs, 8-1, (Hornersville, MO) never quite looked right after taking a line drive off the leg from his first batter, and was saddled with his first loss of the season. He allowed nine runs, seven earned, on 11 hits in four innings.
Four Kentucky State batters – Ransom, Lawson, senior
Russell Sims (Harrodsburg, KY) and senior
Bryan Wilson (Chattanooga, TN) – all had multiple hits in the game.
#2 MILES COLLEGE 12, #4 KENTUCKY STATE 8
Every time Kentucky State scored, Miles had an answer as the Thorobreds were eliminated from the SIAC tournament with the 12-8 loss. It was the first time KSU lost back-to-back in more than a month.
KSU took the lead on a sacrifice fly by Lawson in the bottom of the first, but the Golden Bears tied it up in the top of the second. Seven straight Kentucky State batters reached with two outs in the third inning as the Thorobreds pushed six runs across the plate.
However, the Golden Bears simply responded with eight runs of their own in the top of the fourth to take the lead for good.
Kentucky State pulled to within a run on a RBI single by Lawson in the bottom of the sixth, and to follow with the theme of the game, Miles retaliated with three runs in the top of the seventh.
Junior
Kevin Givhan II (Chicago, IL) had his second three-hit game of the season, going 3-for-4, while senior
Cameron Starks (Alpharetta, GA) was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Lawson was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored.
Kentucky State ends its season 27-16-1.