GORHAM, MAINE 5/9/09 - Not going down without a fight, the
defending champion Keene State baseball team was still alive and
kicking in the Little East Tournament after knocking off top seed
the University of Southern Maine 7-2 on Saturday afternoon.
"We're not going down without a fight," said senior Jamie
Chevalier. "Out players and coaching staff won't let that
happen."
The Owls (25-15) move into the championship round where they
will play second seed Eastern Conn. The Warriors need just one win
over the Owls to claim their sixth tournament title. A win by
KSC will necessitate a championship winner-take-all game on Sunday
at noon.
Chris Burleson turned on a Ben Sonberg (Bow, N.H.) fastball and
put it over the left field fence to give the Huskies an early 1-0
lead in the top of the first inning.
USM pitcher Brennan Perry walked the bases loaded in the bottom
of the inning and was given the quick hook by Coach Ed Flaherty.
Nick Hahn came into pitch and gave up a grand slam home run to
Bobby Doyon, his first home run of the tournament to put the Owls
up 4-1.
Chevalier (Amherst, N.H.), a gold glove winner at second base
last season, showed he can flash the leather at shortstop.
Going to he left, he made a diving stop on a grounder by Anthony
Pisani and flipped to second baseman Kyle Morrill (Auburn, Mass.)
to get the force out on Andrew Stacy in t second. In
the top of the fourth, he made a nifty short-hop pick-up on a smash
by Ryan Gaffney to start a double play.
"We told Ben (Sonberg) if he kept the ball down we'd make the
plays for you," said Chevalier. "Our defense has been
criticized and we deserved it because we were shaky at times.
But this is tournament time and we came through today>
In the fifth, first baseman Beau Darak showed his defensive
prowess diving to the line to get a glove on a hard shot off the
bat of Mike Eaton. He got up and beat Eaton to the bag for the
final out of the inning.
Chevalier led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to left.
He moved over to third on sacrifice fly by Anthony Cipolla
(Glastonbury, Conn.) and came home on a RBI single through the
right side by Tyler DiPrato (Suffield. Conn.).
Cody Callahan (Seekonk, Mass.) opened the sixth with a stand-up
double to the base of the wall in right. Jeff Perkins drove
him home with single up the middle that found its way to the
outfield after deflecting Hahn on mound. The insurance
run put KSC up 6-1.
Sonberg fanned the first two batters he faced in the seventh
before being pulled after giving up a single to Pisani.
Freshman Tim Thiesing (South Grafton, Mass.) came in and got the
dangerous Burleson to pop out to Patnode at third.
Doyon hit his second home run of the game and team-leading 13th
of the season, a line drive that hooked around the foul pole down
the left field line to give the Owls a 7-1 cushion in the seventh.
"They're giving me good pitches to hit," said Doyon. "We
all wanted to go out and get a big win and leave it all out there."
Eaton hit a solo shot to lead-off the eighth for USM to make it
a 7-2 game. With two out, KSC pitching coach brought in
southpaw Dan Martin (Cromwell, Conn.) and he did his job getting
the left-swinging Gaffney to line out to center.
The Owls gave the ball to freshman Dan Wogksch (Bethel, Conn.)
to pitch the ninth. After giving up a walk and a sharp
single to Stacy, Ed Lacourse (Manchester, N.H.) took over on the
mound for Wogksch. On his second pitch Lacourse got Pisani to hit
into a double play. Perkins went to the wall in center and
caught a deep fly ball by Burleson to end the game.
Sonberg picked the perfect time to turn in his best performance
of the season, going 6.2 innings, giving up one run on four hits
with four strikeouts and two walks.
"I had all my pitches working for me today and things worked out
for me," said Sonberg, who improved his record to 5-2. "It gives me
a lot of confidence that they gave me the ball today. I
struggled early in the season and it's great to comeback and give
the team a big outing in the tournament."
Doyon had two hits and five RBIs to lead the Owls.
