Baseball team shines after Friday letdown

After being routed Friday, the Kent State baseball team came back to win its final two games in the Cardinal Classic in Louisville, Ky. over the weekend.

For the weekend, freshman Anthony Gallas had one homerun and two RBI’s, including Sunday’s game-winning hit. Senior third baseman Andrew Davis and sophomore outfielder Jason Patton combined for eight hits in three games.

Senior relief pitcher Ryan Davis accounted for one win and a save.

In the final game, it took the Flashes (5-8) 10 innings to knock off host Louisville 4-2 on Sunday.

Kent State got out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Patton and sophomore shortstop Chris Tremblay each brought in a run.

The Flashes took a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning before the Cardinals’ Chris Lemonis scored on a single by Daniel Burton; however, the tie was short lived.

With one out in the 10th and runners on first and third, Gallas knocked in his sixth run of the season to give Kent State a 3-2 lead. Kent State would post one more run before Ryan Davis pitched a scoreless tenth, forcing three Cardinal groundouts to end the game.

On Saturday, freshman pitcher Kyle Smith allowed no hits and struck out two Sycamores in five innings as Kent State defeated Indiana State 4-0.

Tremblay had two RBI’s to lead the Flashes offense, while Andrew Davis went 3-for-4 with one RBI. Gallas hit his team-leading second homerun of the season.

Relievers Reid Lamport and Ryan Davis finished what Smith (2-1) started by combining to give up just two hits in the final four innings of play. With two outs in the ninth inning, Indiana State (5-4) had two runners reach base after Lamport walked one batter and hit another to put the tying run on-deck.

Davis then replaced Lamport and forced Casey Martin to line-out to second base to pick up the save; his second save of the season.

The Flashes had a rough start to the Cardinal Classic on Friday. California shut down Kent State’s offense and dominated their pitching on its way to an 8-0 win.

Senior pitcher John Pacella gave up two runs in the first inning, but struck out three. He pitched scoreless second, third and fourth innings before California began to hit him in the fifth.

After allowing two runs on two hits, Pacella (1-2) surrendered his third home run of the season that put California (8-10) up 4-0. He was pulled before recording an out in the fifth inning.

Kent State struck out 11 times and managed only three hits on the day.

The Flashes will play a three-game series at Southern Mississippi this weekend.

Contact baseball reporter Tyler McIntosh at [email protected].