HARWICH, MASS.  5/16/08 - Keene State bowed out of the NCAA New England Regional Baseball Tournament with an 8-0 shutout loss to LEC rival Southern Maine at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, Mass. on Friday. 

            The Owls (34-11), making their second straight appearance in the tournament, conclude their season with a program record for wins.  Southern Maine (34-13) stays alive and plays Western New England College.

            The Owl bats that have been so productive during the season remained quiet the past two days. 

            "It's been tough the last two games," said KSC Coach Ken Howe. "We faced some quality pitching, we've done that all year, but for some reason we couldn't get the key hits or keep a rally going.  We hit into a couple double plays in the first few innings and that took the wind out of our sails."  

            "We just couldn't get the big hits when we needed them," said senior outfielder Greg Ford.  "We accomplished so much, but it just wanted in the cards for us today."

            "We got guys on base, but we just couldn't get them in," said senior third baseman Joe Rousseau.  "It just didn't happen for us today."

The Huskies got on the board in the bottom of the first inning when sophomore first baseman Collin Henry (Penobscot, Me.) scored on a fielder's choice grounder by junior centerfielder Ryan Pike (Saco, Me.).  Owl sophomore starter Ben Sonberg (Bow, N.H.) avoided further trouble when he fanned senior right fielder Eddie Skeffington (Everett, Mass.) with runners on first and second.

            With two outs in the second, senior rightfielder Greg Ford (Nashua, N.H.) and sophomore first baseman Beau Darak (Londonderry, N.H.) had back-to-back singles. The Huskies put an end to the mild threat when freshman catcher Jordan Berthiaume (Berlin, Conn.) made a diving catch on a foul pop off the bat of senior shortstop Ryan Jones (Nashua, N.H.).

            USM put two runners on again in the bottom of the frame, but Henry popped o

            Freshman leftfielder Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.) led off the fourth with a double down the right field line, but he was left stranded.  Following a walk to freshman designated hitter John Barber (Brattleboro, Vt.), USM starter Tim Therrian (New Portland, Me.) fanned Ford and Darak and got Jones to fly out to center.

            USM threatened again in the bottom of the fourth.  The Huskies put runners on second and third and two outs. Ford prevented any damage by making a diving catch on a low liner by junior shortstop Chris Burleson (Portland, Me.). 

            The Huskies added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth.  Henry led off with a single and went to second on an error on a pick-off play. He rode home a two-run blast by junior leftfielder Anthony D'Alfonso (Westbrook, Me.), his 14th round-tripper of the year.  Junior centerfielder Ryan Pike (Saco, Me.) walked went all the way to third on errant pick-off and scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Josh Mackey (Danvers, Mass.).  Berthiaume added an RBI double to put USM up 5-0.

Sophomore Mike Riley (East Hartford, Conn.) took over on the mound for KSC in the fifth.  He gave up two more runs in the sixth on a RBI single by Mackey and KSC's third error of the game. Junior Jaime Chevalier (Amherst, N.H.) came into pitch in the seventh and gave up one run in the eighth.

Therrian got stronger as the game progressed.  Not recording a strikeout in the first three innings, he fanned four fifth and sixth innings.

The rain started to come down heavier late in the game.

Doyon and Rousseau had six of the Owls 10 hits. KSC left 11 runners on base.  Darak also chipped in with a couple of hits.

Henry and D'Alfonso had three hits each for USC, which finished with 14 hits.

Sonberg, who suffered his first loss of the season (3-1), gave up four runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and one walk.

Therrian (5-2) got the complete game win for USM.  "He scattered 11 hits, fanned seven and issued just one walk.

"It was a very memorable team" said Howe.  It's a tough time to have your first two game losing streak.  It's going to happen sometime.  I love every one of them and it's been a lot of fun." They gave us everything that possibly could."   

"We had a great season," said Jones.  We definitely did some special things this year.  It's tough to go out like this."

"We couldn't make it to our final goal, but it was a great year and we're very proud of what we accomplished," said senior Jamie Morin. 

"It was probably one of the best teams I ever played for...a great team, a great season," said Rousseau.  It was a great bunch of guys."

This was the sixth meeting between the two Little East rivals.  During the regular season, the Owls and the Huskies split a doubleheader with USM winning the opener   12-7 and KSC taking the nightcap 17-5. After losing to the Huskies 8-4 in the LEC tournament, the Owls came back to sweep USM 21-2 and 14-7 in the championship round.