Kent survives shaky 9th, beats Florida to advance

Fitch’s Jason Bagoly had two hits for the Golden Flashes

Associated Press

omaha, neb.

Winning a game for the first time at the College World Series isn’t supposed to easy.

Just ask Kent State.

The Golden Flashes survived shaky relief pitching to protect a one-run lead in the ninth inning and beat Florida 5-4 on Monday. The loss eliminated the top-seeded Gators, who made it to the finals a year ago.

“It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the end,” Kent State coach Scott Stricklin said. “It was gut-wrenching no matter who you were rooting for. Even if you weren’t rooting for anybody, that was tough to watch. But we found a way.”

The Flashes (47-19) bounced back from an 8-1 loss to Arkansas to post what Stricklin called the biggest win in program history.

“We belong here,” he said. “That’s the most important thing that we wanted as a team, as a program and as a university was to make a statement that we belong here. We’re not a fluke. We’re a really good baseball team.”

Kent State scored four unearned runs and another on a wild pitch, then held on as Florida chipped away at the lead with a run in the sixth inning and two more in the seventh.

The Gators loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Michael Clark and Josh Pierce.

Pierce fought back from a 3-0 count to strike out Casey Turgeon when Turgeon couldn’t check his swing and got called out on an appeal to the third-base umpire.

It looked like Turgeon would walk — TV replays indicated strike two was outside — but he couldn’t hold back on his check swing.

“I don’t know if the home-plate umpire blinked. I was surprised he didn’t call it, and it worried me,” Stricklin said. “I knew David was going to ask. But the longer you wait on those calls, the longer that third base umpire has to wait, the tougher it is for him to call a strike.”

Justin Shafer flew out to right to end the game, with Pierce pumping his right fist once the ball landed in right fielder T.J. Sutton’s glove.

“It’s an unfortunate way to end the season, but I think Kent State deserves a lot of credit for the way they played today,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.

Fitch High graduate Jason Bagoly had two hits and scored a run in his first game since his mother, Cheryl McHenry, passed away on Thursday night. The Flashes are wearing purple stickers on their hats and helmets with the initials CM, in McHenry’s memory.