PHOENIX, AZ. 3/10/07 - Playing under blue skies and 86 degree temperatures, the Keene State College baseball team began its spring week trip by splitting a doubleheader against Brockport State at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix on Saturday.

After dropping the opener 5-1, Keene State came back to win the second game 4-3 on Jeff Perkins's (Dunbarton, N.H.) RBI single in the eighth inning.

In the second game, the Owls went up 1-0 on an RBI single by Greg Ford (Nashua, N.H.) in the first inning.  The Golden Eagles answered with three run in the top of the fourth of KSC pitcher Phil Mabey (Williamstown, Mass.).
KSC tied the game in the bottom on the inning on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Buell (Petersham, Mass.) and RBI double by Ryan Jones (Nashua, N.H.).

Peter Hall (Danielson, Con.) led off the eighth inning with a single.  He stole second, and came around to score the wining run on Perkins' grounder up the middle.
"It was a great way to get out first victory of the season," said KSC Coach Ken Howe.

Jones went three-for four and John Grainger (Keene, N.H.) and Hall had two hits each for the Owls who had 10 hits in the game.

  
James Chevalier (Amherst, N.H.) got the win in relief.  He tossed four scoreless innings, giving up four hits and fanning four batters.

Keene State mustered just three hits in the first game, singles by Jones, Chevalier, and Joe Rousseau (Nashua, N.H.).

Brockport had a two-run inside the park home run in the first.  KSC's run came in the third inning on an RBI single by Jones.

Starter Jamie Morin (Goffstown, N.H.) took the loss for the Owls. He pitched four plus innings giving up all five runs while striking out three and walking one batter. Mike Cook (Dover, Mass.) tossed two scoreless innings in relief.
Howe was pleased with his team's first outing.  I thought we did some nice things today," he said.  We swung the bats pretty well and played well defensively making just one error.  We gave our pitchers an opportunity to win the games."

KSC plays a doubleheader against William Patterson (N.J.) University on Sunday.