'MANSFIELD, Conn. --  Lefty Rick Stromgren (Jr./Keene, NH) shut down Eastern Connecticut State University for the second straight year in the opener and the Keene State College raked seven Eastern pitchers for 18 hits in the nightcap as the Owls swept a Little East Conference baseball doubleheader Saturday afternoon at the ECSU Baseball Stadium.

After pitching a complete-game, four-hit shutout against Eastern (24-16, 8-6) a year ago, Stromgren (5-1) spaced three hits over seven innings in Saturday's first game in his team's 3-2 opening win. In the second game, Keene (28-12, 11-3 little east) knocked out Eastern starter Matt Cremins (Jr./Stoughton, MA) in the top of the first inning with four runs on six hits on the way to a 10-1 victory.

With the sweep, Keene gains a share of its first conference regular-season title, sharing the top spot in the final standings with the University of Southern Maine. Southern Maine gains the top seed and will host next week's four-day, six-team double-elimination at Gorham, ME. The Huskies swept Keene during the regular season to earn the top seed. Southern Maine earned a share of its first conference regular-season title since 2001 by sweeping the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Eastern had won the last four regular-season conference titles.

Greg Ford (So./Nashua, NH) and Joe Rousseau (So./Nashua, NH) drove in runs with singles to give Keene a 2-0 lead in the first game before the Warriors broke through against Stromgren in the seventh on Jason LaVorgna's (So./North Haven) RBI double. In that inning, Eastern loaded the bases with one out but Stromgren got a swinging strikeout and fly ball to center to leave the go-ahead runs aboard. The teams traded runs in the final two innings. Righty starter Justin Davis (Jr./Lisbon) had a six-game winning streak snapped in the game. He gave up 11 hits and all three runs over the first seven innings.

In the second game, Rousseau highlighted a four-run first inning with a two-run single. Leading 4-1, the Owls tacked on two more runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to complete their first sweep of Eastern in four years.

Rousseau had four hits and drove in three runs in the nightcap, while Ford had three hits and drove in two runs and John Grainger (Jr./Keene, NH) was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs. No. 9 hitter Ryan Jones (So./Nashua, NH) hit his first home run of the year - a two-run shot in the seventh that gave KSC an 8-1 lead. In the second game, Matt Cooney (Jr./Arlington, MA) had three of Eastern's nine hits, Chris DeSantis (Sr./Shrewsbury, MA) adding two and driving in Marc Garofalo (Sr./South Kingstown, RI) with the team's run in the third. Garofalo had tripled with one out and DeSantis followd with an opposite-field double.

Eastern's final win total and winning percentage are the lowest in ten years of conference regular-season play. The Warriors will be seeded third in the conference tournament, which gets underway Wednesday.

(Courtesy ECSU Sports Information)