KEENE, N.H. 4/22/09 - Sophomore outfielder Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.) hit one of the Owls four solo home runs and made a game-saving diving catch in the top of the seventh inning to lead the Keene State baseball team to a rain-shortened (7 inning) 7-6 non-conference win over Western New England College on Wednesday.

"It's nice to help out anyway possible," said Doyon, who tied the game at 6-all in the fifth with his seventh home run of the season.  "He just left it out over the plate and I stayed back on it. "Doyon said.

The Owls (17-13) went into the seventh nursing a 7-6 lead.  With one out, sophomore Tony Trubia (Tolland, Conn.) doubled to left field.  Freshman Matt Fleishman (East Northport, N.Y.) fanned for the second out.  That brought up sophomore Jason Leclerc (Chicopee, Mass.), who lined a shot toward Doyon. "I just went for it," he said. "I thought I had a chance and came up somewhat surprised."

WNEC (23-13) scored a run in the top of the first on a couple of hits and a fielder's choice by sophomore Andrew Fatse (Hampden, Mass.) that plated sophomore Tommy Bouvier (East Longmeadow, Mass.).

The Owls answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning on RBI hits from Doyon, junior Anthony Cipolla (Glastonbury, Conn.), and senor Beau Darak (Londonderry, N.H.).

Fatse gave the Golden Bears back the lead (4-3) with a three-run home run to center field in the third inning. Two batters later, Fleishman connected for a solo shot to left to make it 5-3. 

The Owls played long ball in the bottom of the inning, tying the game on solo homeruns from junior Keith Patnode (Keene, N.H.), his fifth of the season, and Cipolla, who blasted his first home run of his KSC career.  "I don't really have too much power, but I guess I had something in me today," Cipolla said.  "It felt pretty good. I didn't want to celebrate too much, but it was a good time."

WNEC took back the lead (6-5) on a RBI single from senior Mike Beck (Whitesboro, N.Y.) in the fifth.

Doyon tied the game in the bottom of the frame with the Owls third solo home run of the day.  In the sixth, freshman Erik Bergstrom (Enfield, Conn.) put the Owls up 7-6 on an opposite field home run to right.  "I didn't think I got all of it, but it had some back spin and carried out," said Bergstrom about his first college round-tripper. "It was raining going around the bases, but I enjoyed it."

Doyon, Cipolla and Bergstorm finished the game with two hits each.

Faste had four RBIs while junior Justin Waltz (Groton, Conn.), senior Chris Newell (Wallingford, Conn.), and Fleishman each had two hits for WNEC.

Sophomore Corey Vogt (Suffield, Conn.) had a rough start for the Owls, giving up six runs and eight hits over the first four innings.  Sophomore Ed Lacourse (Manchester, N.H.) took over in the fifth. "With the weather, I just tried to keep the ball down and keep the team in contention," said Lacourse, who tossed three innings of three-hit ball with three strikeouts to pickup his first college win.  "It was a huge "W".

Senior Jason Pizzoferrato (Windsor, Conn.) started for the Golden Bears.  He went three innings, giving up five runs on eight hits while fanning two.  Junior Matt Rogers (Portsmouth, R.I.) (3-3) took the loss for WNEC. He allowed two runs on two hits with four strikeouts.

Both team return to action on Thursday, Keene State is scheduled to host Fitchburg State and WNEC has a home game against Westfield State.