WESTFIELD, MASS. 4/8/10 – The Keene State College softball team dropped a  pair of close one-run games to host Westfield State College on Thursday. 

After coming up short 3-2 in the opener, the Owls saw Westfield score two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take the nightcap 4-3. 

Keene State, which has lost its last four games, falls to 10-8.  Westfield State, winners of nine straight, improves to 14-4.

Trailing 1-0 in the first game, KSC manufactured the tying run in the top of the third.  Sophomore Haley Chandler (Wakefield, Mass.) singled, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and came home on a sacrifice fly by junior Katie Bradford (Lebanon, N.H.).

Westfield scored two runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-1.

KSC got one run back in the top of the seventh on anther sacrifice fly by Bradford that plated sophomore Sara Stocklinski (Newton, N.J.), who opened the inning with a single.

Chandler finished the game with three hits for the KSC Owls.

Stocklinski (1-2), who gave up three runs on four hits, took the loss in the circle.

Sophomore Lisa Policelli's (Tewksbury, Mass.) two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning drove in the tying and game-winning runs for Westfield in the second game.

Keene State had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the frame when Chandler, who had been placed on second, was bunted to third and came home on a wild pitch.

The KSC Owl had an early 2-0 lead in the game.  They scored a pair of runs in the top of the first on RBI hits from Laura Chandler (Wakefield, Mass.) and freshman Nicole Dupuis (Fitchburg, Mass.).

Keene State had five hits in the game and left seven runners on base.

Sophomore Samantha Pratt (2-1) suffered her first loss of the season.

Keene State returns to Little East action on Saturday when it travels to Providence to take on four-time conference champs Rhode Island College.