KEENE, N.H. 4/24/07 - Keene State College celebrated its first appearance of the season at Owl Athletic Complex by sweeping a  Little East Conference baseball double header (6-1 and 8-3) over Western Connecticut State University in Keene on Tuesday.

Ranked fifth in this week's New England poll, Keene State (22-9, 9-1 LEC) extended its winning streak to seven games.  Western Conn. falls to 7-18 (2-7 LEC).

In the first game, KSC took a 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly by Greg Ford (Nashua, N.H.) in the bottom of the fourth.  The Owls broke the game open with a four- run eighth inning that featured an RBI single by Ford and a three run home run by John Grainger (Keene, N.H.).  It was Grainger's first round tripper of the season.

George O'Kane (South Easton, Mass.) and Andy Powers (Stratford, Conn.) finished the game with three hits each for the Colonials.

Freshman pitcher Ben Sonberg (Bow, N.H.) went five and a third inning to improve his record to 2-0.  Sonberg scattered five hits and fanned two.  In relief, Jamie Morin (Goffstown, N.H.) threw three and two-thirds innings of scoreless ball giving up three hits and striking out four.

Ryan Slootmaker (Pequannock, N.J.) (2-2) went the distance for WCSU.  He gave up six runs on seven hits with two walks and a strikeout. 

The Owls banged out 11 hits and took advantage of four Colonial errors in the nightcap.

Tied 2-2 after two innings, the Owls took a 4-2 lead in the third on a two-run fielding error.  WCSU cut the lead to 4-3 in the fourth, Matt Perper (New City, N.Y.) doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Vinny Ferriauolo (Orlando, Fl.).

KSC went up 6-3 in fifth on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Cipolla (Glastonbury, Conn.) and an RBI single from Ben Fournier (Central Harbor, N.H.).  They platted two more runs in the eighth on RBI hits by Ryan Jones (Nashua, N.H.) and Brett Savard (Nashua, N.H.). 

Jeff Perkins (Dunbarton, N.H.) had three hits and James Chevalier (Amherst, N.H.) and Fournier finished with two hits each for KSC.

Starter Mike Riley (East Harford, Conn.) pitched sixth innings to get the win for the Owls.  Dan Martin (Cromwell, Conn.) and Chevalier also saw action on the hill.

Ryan Dilts (North Plainfield, Conn.) (0-5) took the loss for WCSU.

KSC is on the road at Becker College on Wednesday.