KEENE, N.H. 5/10/08 - Needing two wins to capture their first-ever Little East Conference baseball championship, top seed Keene State did just that on Saturday at Owl Athletic Complex, defeating third seed University of Southern Maine 21-2 and 14-5 to win its first ever LEC crown.

            Keene State (33-9), which set a program record for wins with its second game victory, earns the conferences' automatic berth to the NCAA tournament which begins Wednesday in Harwich, Mass.  The Owls earned an at-large berth to the tournament last year.

            Southern Maine (32-12), which entered the day needing just one win to secure the title, will await an at-large berth to the national tournament.

            Keene State scored a combined 28 runs and collected 40 hits in the two wins over the Huskies.

            KSC Coach Ken Howe said the difference was on the mound.  "We had stronger pitching, more guys ready to throw," he said.  "Ben Sonberg gave us some big innings and from there it's just a matter of getting outs."

            "We've accomplished two goals; one was to win the Little East title and host the tournament and the second was to win the tournament.  We have a couple more we'd like to accomplish. Hopefully, we're not done yet."

            "Everything clicked today," said Greg Ford, who was named the tournament's most outstanding player. "I just had a feeling today was our day. We came out on fire and just kept hitting the ball." 

            Junior pitcher Jaime Chevalier, who got the win the first game, was the recipient of the big offensive support.  "I just threw strikes and got ahead of the batters and our bats did the rest," said Chevalier, who helped himself with three hits in the game.  "This team has too much heart not to give them a fight today.  I just had to hit the zone and the rest took care of itself. Many teams would have packed it in after losing to Southern Maine the first time, but we wanted this for Coach (Ken) Howe and we got it."

          Owl starter sophomore Ben Sonberg (Bow, N.H.) worked out of a jam in the bottom of the first inning. With the bases loaded, he fanned senior right fielder Eddie Skeffington (Everett, Mass.).

The Owls went back to work in the top of the second, scoring six runs on six hits. Freshman designated hitter John Barber (Brattleboro, Vt.), junior first baseman Beau Darak (Londonderry, N.H.), senior third baseman Joe Rousseau (Nashua, N.H.) junior second baseman Jamie Chevalier (Amherst, N.H.), and sophomore Anthony Cipolla (Glastonbury, Conn.) came through with RBI hits.

 Southern Maine answered with one run in the bottom of the frame on a lead-off home run by sophomore Josh Mackey (Danvers, Mass.), his sixth of the season. The Huskies had a chance to do more damage, but junior shortstop Chris Burleson (Portland, Me.) hit into a double play and junior Andrew Stacy (Denmark, Me.) fanned to end the threat.

Inn the fourth, senior right fielder Eddie Skeffington (Everett, Mass.) had a lead-off single and scored on a sacrifice fly by junior third baseman Ryan Gaffney (Salem, N.H.) to make it 6-2.

Sophomore lefty Jameson Wentworth (Peabody, Mass.) took over on the mound for KSC in the bottom of the fifth. He gave up two hits and was replaced by sophomore right-hander Rob Delbuono (Trumbull, Conn.), who gave up a run on a fielder's choice RBI by Skeffington to cut the lead to 6-3.

After Delbuono got the side in the bottom of the six, the Owls plated three key insurance runs in the seventh.  With the bases loaded, freshman left fielder Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.), facing pitcher Mark Schmidt (Gorham, Me.), drove the ball to the base of the left field fence to clear the bases and give KSC a 9-3 lead. Two more runs came across on an infield error and another run on a RBI single by junior center fielder Jeff Perkins (Dunbarton, N.H.).

Stacy's first home run of the season, a solo shot in the seventh, made it a 12-4 game.

Perkins and Rousseau had RBI hits in the top of the ninth to go up 14-4. 

Ford, the Owls' closer came into pitch the final two innings.    He gave up three runs in the bottom of the ninth, but got Collin Henry to pop out to shortstop Ryan Jones for the final out of the game.

Rousseau, who had three, hits and Doyon finished the game with three RBIs each. Jones and Perkins knocked in a pair. Perkins, Cipolla, Doyon, and Darak had two hits.

Anthony D'Alfonso (Westbrook, Me.) and Ryan Gaffney (Salem, N.H.) had three hits each for USM which had 15 hits in the game.

Sonberg went four innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and a walk.  After Wentworth pitched a third of an inning, Delbuono    (4-0) came in to get the win. He went 2.2 innings, giving up one run on three hits with two strikeouts. Ford, who finished up, gave up three runs on four hits with three strikeouts and one walk.

Senior starter Adam Ross (Spruce Hill, Me.) (4-4) who lasted just 1.2 innings, took the loss for the Huskies.