MANSFIELD, CONN.  4/2/10 – The second seeded Keene State College baseball team lost to the University of Southern Maine 14-6, eliminating the Owls from the Little East Conference Tournament on Friday.

            Keene State (26-15-1), which lost earlier in the day to UMass-Boston 10-8, needed to defeat the sixth seeded Huskies to remain alive in the tournament.

            The Owls jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.  Junior Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.) had a two-run single and senior Keith Patnode  (Keene, N.H.) added a RBI single to center.

            However, the Huskies (21-20-1) also look to stay alive in the tournament answered with seven runs in bottom of the inning.

            Patnode, who finished the game with three hits, homered to right field in the fourth, his seventh of the season, to make a 9-4 game.  USM came back with five more runs in the bottom of the sixth to go up 14-4. 

           KSC got single runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Junior Tyler DiPrato (Suffield, Conn.) had an RBI double in the seventh and sophomore Erik Bergstrom (Enfield, Conn.) had an RBI single in the eighth.

           Zach Fernandes had five RBI and Roberto Valenti and Antony Pisani each had three hits for Southern Maine.  USM finished the game with 16 hits.

           Sophomore Jeff Pelkey (Fitzwilliam, N.H.), who couldn't get out of the first inning, took the loss for KSC.  His record falls to 2-3.

          Dustin Stanton, who took over for starter Mark Schmidt in the first inning for USM, got the win.