Louisville's McDonnell sees 1990 Citadel team in foe

It was 24 years ago when a sophomore second baseman named Dan McDonnell helped his college baseball team from The Citadel, a tiny military school in the heart of Charleston, S.C., reach the College World Series.

McDonnell's Bulldogs stunned college baseball powerhouses Miami and North Carolina State in the 1990 regionals and roared into Omaha, Neb., with a 45-12 record. They were the new kids on the block. They weren't supposed to be there.

That memory popped back into McDonnell's head this week as his Louisville baseball team prepared to host upstart Kennesaw State, with only eight years of Division I baseball history, in the best-of-three super regional series at U of L's Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend.

Louisville starts the series in a pressure-filled spot. The Cards are home, and the Cards are supposed to win.

Kennesaw State arrives in Louisville with house money at its disposal.

McDonnell said his team's focused preparation for its regional opener last Friday against Kent State gave him confidence that the Cardinals wouldn't sleepwalk through this week after the big UK win.

Kennesaw State (40-22) topped SEC power Alabama twice last weekend, and the whirlwind's carried the suburban Atlanta public university to the brink of history.

Only five teams in the last 40 years of the NCAA baseball tournament have won regionals in their first NCAA Tournament appearance. Each of the first four teams to do that went to the CWS, and Kennesaw State is the fifth team.

On March 25, this moment in history seemed unlikely, if not impossible.

Kennesaw State had just lost its seventh consecutive game, a 10-5 bludgeoning at the hands of Auburn. The Owls were losing games 2-1, and they were losing games 11-8.

Everything was going wrong, all the way until their record hit 14 wins and 20 losses.

Kennesaw State has won 26 of its 28 games since, including a 16-game winning streak that lasted five weeks.

The success has bewildered even head coach Mike Sansing.

"Everyone keeps asking me how and I honestly can't tell you anything specific," Sansing said.

He pointed to a midseason report card that he and his staff compiled. They highlighted three areas that needed to improve — plate patience, defense and walking fewer opposing batters.

The defense is still a work in progress, Sansing admitted, but Kennesaw State is hitting 20 percentage points better than it was before the 26-2 run. And the Owls' pitchers are walking 1.7 fewer batters a game.

But he also figures that his team's run may be because of a psychological tweak.

Before a weekend series at Florida Gulf Coast, Sansing and his staff bought a wrestling title belt from Wal-Mart. They'd give it to the Owls' player of the game when KSU won.

Kennesaw State lost two of three that weekend, but the change in team psyche was already noticeable.

Then assistant coach Derek Simmons turned up the heat.

"He's a huge wrestling fan," Sansing said. "I guess I should call it 'wrasslin.'

Simmons, Sansing continued, bought a World Wrestling Entertainment replica belt to replace the Wal-Mart belt.

"So now the guys are really fired up," Sansing said, laughing.

The bus ride to Louisville was the first time Sansing has had a chance to have fun through this experience, and the ride his team has given him has opened his eyes — and the rest of the college baseball community's eyes, too.

"It's put us on the map a little bit," ace pitcher Travis Bergen said. "Nobody knew who we were or what state we're from."

McDonnell this week saw a little of his old Citadel team in this Kennesaw State bunch. And he said that's more than enough to keep him focused on the task at hand.

"I don't think anything surprises us these days," McDonnell said. "This is a big basketball community here in Louisville, and we saw what happened in the NCAA Tournament."

Reach Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_CJ).

Kennesaw State at Louisville

Best-of-three series at Jim Patterson Stadium (*- if necessary)

Today: 6:30 p.m., ESPNU

Saturday: 7 p.m., ESPNU

*Sunday: 6 p.m., ESPN2

If you go

• Tickets: All-session passes $45 or $25 ($15 for college students) via GoCards.com or at the Papa John's Cardinal Stadium ticket office.

Single-session tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. today. It's $20 a day for reserved seating, $10 for general admission and $5 for college students.

Get to know Kennesaw State

• Located: Kennesaw, Ga., 28 miles northwest of Atlanta

• Enrollment: 24,604

• Established: 1963 (as a junior college)

• Most famous alum: Ty Pennington, of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

• NCAA baseball history: Moved up to Division I in 2005-06. Won the NAIA national title in 1994.