With an early lead behind a two-run homerun from Jake Noll in the bottom of the first, the FGCU baseball team was quickly stopped by Kennesaw State, who took game one 7-2 in the three-game series.
Ryan Lang got through the top of the first with only six pitches and went on to retire the first two batters of the next inning. However, Justin Motley drove a fastball off the leftfield foul pole to push the Owls ahead, 3-2.
After being scoreless for the next three at-bats for both teams, in the top of the sixth, the Owls extended their lead to 4-2 when Brennan Morgan hit a RBI single to center field to score Austin Upshaw.
The Owls added a trio of runs in the top of the eighth. With runners on second and third and one out, Jeremy Howell drove in a run on a single past Tyler Selesky at third base before Taylor Allum followed it with a RBI groundout and Motley slammed an RBI triple to left center.
Offensively, Jake Smith went three-for-three from the plate with one run scored, while Selesky added a pair of hits in the contest and Noll hit the first-inning homer.
Since the Owls claimed the Atlantic Sun regular season with the win, FGCU will have no worse than the fifth seed in next week’s conference tournament with at least one win this weekend.
The two teams will be at it again 6:30 p.m. tonight at Swanson Stadium.