Kent State Named InsidePitching.com National Pitching Staff of the Week
3/14/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Kent State baseball program was named InsidePitching.com National Pitching Staff of the Week today (March 14). This award is given to the pitching staff that shows the most dominance over the course of each week in the college season.
The offensive production in Saturday's 7-1 win over UAB supported a strong pitching performance by senior left-handed starting pitcher Kyle Hallock (Sandusy, Ohio), who matched his career high of eight strikeouts. The lone run he was charged with was unearned and he scattered seven hits with just one walk over seven innings. Hallock improved his record to 2-2 on the season. Junior righty Ryan Mace (Tallmadge, Ohio) worked the final two frames, striking out one and surrendering two hits.
On Sunday, junior left-handed starting pitcher David Starn (Hudson, Ohio) baffled Notre Dame's offense through eight innings, but the Fighting Irish scored two in the top of the ninth inning to defeat the Golden Flashes, 2-0. Starn was nothing short of dominant and had a no-hitter going until Notre Dame senior right fielder Herman Petzold cracked a two-out single to center in the top of the eighth. The southpaw fanned 10 batters – matching Kent State's season-high for strikeouts established by Chafin March 4 at Louisville – and surrendered just one walk in eight innings. He now sports a season ERA of 0.93 with 26 strikeouts through 29 innings of work. Starn has allowed just four runs – three earned -- and 13 hits and five walks in 2011.
Under the direction of 14th-year pitching coach Mike Birkbeck, the Golden Flashes sport a team ERA of 2.20, allowing just 94 hits and 40 walks to go along with 87 strikeouts.
Kent State is scheduled to play its first midweek game of the season Wednesday (March 16) at Pittsburgh at 3 p.m.
Click here to view InsidePitching.com's release.
