'KEENE, N.H. 4/22/06 - Jessica Starkey (Keene, N.H.) knocked in five runs, including a grand-slam homerun to lead the Keene State College softball team to a Little East Conference sweep (9-1 and 3-0) over UMass-Dartmouth at Owl Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon. 

In the opener, Starkey hit a run-producing double to put the Owls up 1-0 in the first inning.  KSC added two more runs in the bottom of the third.  Sarah Campbell (Auburn, Mass.) singled and came home on Melissa Scata's (Medway, Mass.) ninth homerun of the season.  

UMD (14-6-1) got on the board in the top of the fourth when Vicki Andruszkiewicz (Danvers, Mass.) doubled and scored on Brittney Kannan's (Methuen, Mass.) RBI single.

KSC broke the game open with a five run fourth inning.  Kathleen Gambino's (Freeport, N.Y.) RBI single and Starkey's grand slam homerun to left center gave the Owls an 8-1 lead. Keene State closed the game out in the fifth when Tiffany Underhill (Eastham, Mass.) drove in Erin Fuoroli (Warwick, R.I.).

Starkey had two hits and five RBI to lead the Owls.  Campbell also collected two hits in the game.  

Ashlee Nicholson (Swanzey, N.H.) (9-5) gave up three hits, fanned one, and didn't issue a walk in three and 1/3 innings of work.  Brittney Kannan (Methuen, Mass.) took the loss for the Corsairs.    

In the nightcap, back-to-back RBI doubles by Starkey and Campbell gave KSC a 2-0 lead in the third.  Scata cracked her second round-tripper of the day to give the Owls' a 3-0 win. 

Campbell led KSC with two hits.  Andruszkiewicz and Morgan had hits for UMD. 

Kari Gardner (Grafton, Mass.) (3-1) allowed one hit and struck out two in three innings on the mound to pick up the win for the Owls.  Freshman Amie Nickerson (Wrentham, Mass.) gave up four hits, fanned three and intentionally walked one to take the loss for UMass-Dartmouth. 

Keene State will travel to Rhode Island College for a pair of make-up games on Sunday.  UMass-Dartmouth will play a doubleheader at Eastern Connecticut State University on Tuesday (5 p.m.).