'ORONO, Maine  --  Senior Nick Arroyo (Northridge, Calif.) had three hits, including a double and home run, and five RBI to lead the Keene State College Owls to a 14-4 thumping of the University of Southern Maine Huskies in a winners bracket game of the 2006 Little East Conference Baseball Tournament Saturday.

The game was played at Mahaney Diamond in Orono, Maine, after bad weather forced the tournament to be moved from the Southern Maine.  Keene State, 31-12, advances to Sunday's championship round needing one win to capture its first LEC title and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.

Southern Maine, 29-14, faces Eastern Connecticut State University, 26-17,  in an elimination game (Game Nine) under the lights at the Mahaney Diamond.  Eastern Conn. defeated the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 5-3, in an elimination game Saturday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, Maine, to stay alive.  The winner of the Southern Maine-Eastern Connecticut game will have to defeat Keene State twice on Sunday to win the tournament.

"Anything can happen," said KSC coach Ken Howe.  "Are we confident? Sure.  But it's not going to be easy by any means." 

"We'd like to bring the championship home," he added. "That's been our goal all year long." 

The first six games of the six-team, double-elimination tournament were played Wednesday and Thursday at Southern Maine, located in Gorham, Maine, but the bad weather postponed the three games scheduled for Friday.

The Owls jumped out to a 4-0 lead against USM senior starter Brett Rogers (Orr's Island, Maine/Mt. Ararat) in the first inning.  Arroyo had a bases loaded double that chased home three runs and knocked Rogers from the game.  Arroyo smacked a two-run homer in the eighth inning.

Keene State picked up a single run in the second on an RBI single by freshman James Chevalier (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan), and three unearned runs in the third inning on a two-run double  by freshman Jeff Perkins (Dunbarton, N.H./Goffstown) and an RBI triple by Chevalier to lead 8-0.

Sophomore pitcher Phil Mabey (Williamstown, Mass./Mt. Greylock) kept Southern Maine in check until tiring in the eighth.  Mabey worked 7.1 innings allowing five hits and six walks while fanning six to earn his third win of the season.

Perkins, Chevalier, junior John Grainger (Keene, N.H.) and sophomore Joe Rousseau (Nashua, N.H.) all had two hits for the Owls.

Junior Ryan Bourque (Sanford, Maine) and freshman Stefan Black (West Gardiner, Maine) had a pair of singles for Southern Maine.  Rogers, the first of five USM hurlers, was saddled with the loss.

(Courtesy of USM Sports Information)