ATLANTA- Senior Brandon Williams launched his second home run of the year but the Panthers yielded 15 hits in an 11-5 loss for the Georgia State baseball team (7-7) Friday night in its opening game with Kennesaw State (6-7) at the GSU Baseball Complex.
Justin Malone (0-1) took just the third loss of his career in the defeat as the Owls broke a 4-4 deadlock with two runs in the fourth inning and five more in the fifth. Malone, who is also the school's all-time saves leader, fell to 12-3 for this career.
The Panthers connected for four runs on four hits off Owls starter Josh Carr (3-1), but could not keep pace with the Owls' three-home run night.
After KSU went up 3-0 in the second inning on a pair of long balls, the Panthers came back to tie the game in the bottom of the frame. Williams took Carr over the wall in left-center for GSU's first run, then Caden Bailey added a sacrifice fly and Mark Hogan scored on a double steal attempt to make it 3-3.
The Owls scored again in the third but GSU tied it once more in the bottom of the inning as Kody Adams ripped a leadoff double and came around to score on a groundout.
Another homer put KSU up 6-4 in the fourth and the Owls would claim the lead for good by adding five runs on a six-hit fifth inning.
Panther pitchers Travis Lee, T.J. Sullivan and Jason Boulais combined for 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, but GSU could not rally back, scoring just one more time in the game on a Drew Shields RBI single.
GSU fell to 6-3 at home this season with the loss. Hogan finished the day 2-for-2 with a pair of stolen bases.
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle was on hand to throw out the game's ceremonial first pitch.
The two teams continue their series at KSU's Stillwell Stadium Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Panther senior Jake Dyer (1-1) will get the start for GSU and the game can be heard on WRAS-FM 88.5, beginning 15 minutes prior to first pitch.
