'PHOENIX, ARIZ. 03/17/06 - The Keene State College baseball team split a doubleheader against St. Norbert (WI) College in Phoenix, Ariz., on Friday afternoon.  After losing the first game, 6-5, the Owls charged back to post an 8-5 victory in the nightcap. 

In the opener, Jeremy Schilling (Centerville, Mass.) hit an RBI double in the first inning to put KSC on the board.  Following consecutive singles by Greg Ford (Nashua, N.H.) and Joe Rousseau (Nashua, N.H.), Nick Arroyo (Northridge, Ca.) hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate a run in the fourth bringing the Owls within one (3-2).  Keene State tied it up (3-3) in the fifth when Ryan Jones (Nashua, N.H.) singled and stole second, and John Grainger's (Keene, N.H.) run-producing single scored Jones.  After St. Norbert had a three run sixth inning, KSC staged a comeback in the seventh.  With the bases loaded, Rousseau cracked a two-run single for the 6-5 final.  

Jones went two-for-two with three RBI, while Grainger and Rousseau had a pair of hits each.  The Owls had 10 hits in the game.  

Rick Stromgren (Keene, N.H.) took the loss for KSC.  He allowed five earned runs and nine nits with three walks in five and two-thirds innings. 

In the second game, the Owls scored four runs on five hits to jump out to an early 4-0 lead in the first.  A one-run sacrifice fly by Schilling, back-to-back RBI triples by Grainger and Ford, and a run-producing single by Rousseau accounted for the uprising.  KSC added two more runs in the second on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Ford and a balk.  The final two runs came in the seventh when Jones scored on a wild pitch and Schilling, who singled to get on, came home on Ford's sacrifice fly. 

Jones and Josh Watkins (Keene, N.H.) had two hits each for KSC. 

Jon Young (Rindge, N.H.) pitched four and one-third innings before leaving the game after being hit by a line drive to his pitching arm.  He gave up five runs on nine hits, fanning three and walking one.  Mike Wiseman (Centerville, Mass.) delivered the second out of the fourth inning and Ford picked up the final out of the fourth and pitched the remaining innings to pick up the save.  He allowed one hit and struck out three in three and one-third. 

Keene State will face Johns Hopkins (Md.) University on Saturday (9:30 p.m.).