Bears Facing Kennesaw State for First Time in School History

KENNESAW, Ga. – The University of Central Arkansas is in its third year as a member of the ASUN Conference, but its baseball team has yet to play every other member of the conference. But that changes this weekend.

The Bears and Kennesaw State will meet for the first time on Friday night in an ASUN Conference series opener at Stillwell Stadium.

The Owls are 17-14 overall and 7-5 in conference play, good for a tie for fourth in the standings. UCA is 13-18 overall and 4-8 in league play.

The Bears, who had a mid-week game at home with Memphis rained out on Wednesday, were swept at Florida Gulf Coast last weekend. However, the three losses were by a combined four runs. UCA had leads in all three games but could not hold them.

KSU lost two of three games at Stetson last weekend, the dropped a 15-5 decision in eight innings to Georgia on Tuesday night in Athens, Ga.

The Owls have four players hitting above .300, led by Brayden Eidson at .385 and Spencer Hanson at .370. That quartet has also combined to hit 18 of KSU’s 25 home runs, with Isaac Bouton leading the way with eight. The Owls are hitting .283 as a team.

Blake Aita, Bo Rhudy and Braden Osbolt all have three victories on the mound for the Owls, while Tanner Franklin has a team-high five saves.

The Bears are led offensively by center fielder Drew Sturgeon, who is hitting .322 with team bests of six home runs and, 37 hits and 28 runs batted in , along with a .513 slugging percentage. Mason Griffin has a 5-3 record and a 3.03 ERA out of the UCA bullpen. Graduate Jesse Barker leads the Bears with 58 strikeouts.

All three games will be carried live on The Bear 91.3 and ESPN+. Saturday’s game is set for 3 p.m, (CST), followed by Sunday’s series finale at noon (CST).