RINDGE, N.H. 5/4/08 - Keene State College captured its first outright Little East Conference regular season championship with a doubleheader sweep (9-4 and 19-7) over Rhode Island College at Franklin Pierce University's Pappas Field on Sunday night. The games were moved to FPU due to unplayable field conditions at KSC.

The second game went seven innings due to the LEC 10-run, seven inning rule.

Keene State (28-8, 12-2 LEC) earns the top seed in the LEC Championship tournament which will begin Wednesday at Owl Athletic Complex.  KSC shared the regular season title with Southern Maine in 2006.

KSC Coach Ken Howe said it was a big day for his Owl team.  "We did something we've never done before, but now we have to have to keep going," he said.

R.I. College (24-13, 8-6 LEC) will be the fourth seed in the tournament.

The Owls, playing in Rindge for the first time since 2000, got a pair of strong starts on the mound and scored a combined 28 runs en route to the sweep. 

Sophomore first baseman Beau Darak (Londonderry, N.H.) finished the doubleheader with four home runs and seven RBIs.  He tied a school record with three dingers in the second game, including two in the fifth inning.

"I don't know what happened today, I was just seeing the ball well," said Darak.  "They left it up and I hit it."

Darak and senior right fielder Greg Ford, with 11 and 10 round-trippers respectively, have been jockeying for the season school home run record all spring.  "Today it was my turn," said Darak.  "When I got back to the dugout, I said gotcha."

KSC, which scored runs in all but two innings in the opener, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first on a two run triple by freshman leftfielder Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.)

After the Anchormen cut the lead to 4-2 in the top of the third, KSC answered with single runs in its third and fourth innings and two more in the fifth to go up 8-2.  Darak hit the first of his four home runs of the day in the fifth and Ford hit a solo shot to lead-off the seventh. 

Junior center fielder Jeff Perkins (Dunbarton, N.H.) and Ford had two hits each and junior second baseman Jamie Chevalier (Amherst, N.H) collected three RBIs for KSC. 

Junior third baseman Jeff Costa (Pawtucket, R.I.) hit a solo home run for RIC in the eighth.

Senior pitcher Jamie Morin (Goffstown, N.H.) was the recipient of the offensive support. He went seven strong innings, giving up three runs on six hits with a career high 10 strikeouts and no walks to improve to 4-0.

Morin said the early run support made his job easier.  "It makes its so much easier to pitch when you have run support even before you go out to the mound," he said.

Freshman Gary Levesque (East Providence, R.I.), 1-4, took the loss for the Anchormen.

Owl bats remained hot in the second game, spraying 15 hits around Pappas Field.  KSC scored three runs in the first and four more in the second. With two outs, KSC went on a tear in the fifth, plating 10 runs on seven hits, including a solo and three-run home run from Darak.  Darak's second home run was a moon shot that cleared the left field fence at Pappas field and landed in the parking lot.  "That's the hardest I ever hit a ball," he said.  "I knew I got all of it."

Chevalier, who finished the twin bill with five runs and seven RBIs, picked up three more hits in the nightcap along with Darak. Doyon also tallied four RBIs in the two games.

Junior right fielder Chris O'Connors (North Kingstown, R.I.) had a two-run home run in a six-run sixth inning for RIC.

Senior Phil Mabey (Williamstown, Mass.), who struck out seven of the first nine batters he faced, pitched five innings of one-hit ball to improve his record to 4-1. He fanned seven and didn't issue a walk.

"I had my stuff going today," said Mabey, who went just one batter over the minimum. 

Senior Evan Grogan (East Lyme, Conn.), the first of five pitchers used by RIC, took the loss.