'KEENE, N.H. 3/29/06 - Sophomore Greg Ford (Nashua, N.H.) tied a school record with three home runs and seven RBIs to lead Keene State College to a 23-12 slugfest non-conference win over Springfield College on Wednesday.  The Owls also tied a school record with six round trippers in the game.

Keene State (9-4), which finished the game with 22 hits, exploded for seven runs in the second inning and eight more in the fifth.

The Owls jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on a RBI double from John Grainger (Keene, N.H.) and a two-run home run from Ford.  KSC batted around in the second.  Nick Arroyo (Northridge, Ca.) and Josh Watkins (Keene, N.H.) hit back-to-back home runs, Jeff Perkins (Dunbarton, N.H.), Jones, and Jeremy Schilling (Centerville, Mass.) added consecutive RBI doubles and Ford capped the inning with a  two-run home run.  Schilling added an RBI double in the third to put KSC up 11-0.

Springfield tied the game in the fifth.  Chris McCarthy (East Longmeadow, Mass.) had  a three-run home run and later in the inning tied the game with a grand slam. He finished the game with seven RBIs.

The Owls got the lead back for good in the bottom of the fifth.  Ford cracked his third home run of the day, a three-run shot, and  Andrew Buell (Petersham, Mass.) added a two-run pinch hit home run to put KSC up 19-11.

"I just felt very good swinging the bat today," said Ford.  "We're a good team we can hit.  It's going to be fun watching us hit this year."

Ford, Schilling, Joe Rousseau (Nashua, N.H.) and James Chevalier (Amherst, N.H.) finished the game with three hits each.  Chevalier also had four RBIs.

Ryan Kohler (Alstead, N.H.) (1-1) who took over for starter Jake Tenney (Surry, N.H.) in the fifth, picked up the win for the Owls. Tim Dowling (Naugatuck, Conn.)got the loss for the Pride (7-6).

Keene State is at Babson on Thursday (3 p.m.).