AUBURN, N.Y. 5/19/10 – Relying most of the season on its potent line-up for wins, Keene State College turned to its improving pitching staff to post a 1-0 shutout victory over Skidmore College in a first-round game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament at Falcon Park in Auburn, N.Y. on Wednesday morning.
Junior Dan Nelson (Glastonbury, Conn.), the Owls' starter, along with relievers junior Ed Lacourse (Manchester, N.H.), freshman Tim Quagliaroli (Windsor Locks, Conn.), and junior Corey Vogt (Suffield, Conn.) combined on the seven-hit shutout, the third shutout of the season for KSC.
"I was a little nervous when I got out there, but kept the ball down and pitched my game," said Nelson, who scattered five hits over six innings while fanning three and walking two.
"Everybody jokes with me saying the reason I'm 7-0 this season is because I've gotten a lot of run support," Nelson added. "But in the last two games, I've only let up one run in 18 innings."
The fifth-seeded Owls (27-15-1) will face either top seed and host SUNY Cortland or eighth seed Castleton State College in a winner's bracket game on Thursday, at 4 p.m. Fourth seeded Skidmore (30-14) will play the loser of the Cortland-Castleton State contest in an elimination contest at 10 a.m.
Keene State scored the game's only run in the top of the fourth inning. Senior Keith Patnode (Keene, N.H.) reached second on a one-out double, advanced to third on a single by junior leftfielder Peter Burgio (Bolton, Conn.), and scored on a sacrifice fly from sophomore designated hitter Erik Bergstrom (Enfield, Conn.) Burgio and centerfielder Kyle Morrill (Auburn, N.H.) each had a pair of hits for Keene.
Nelson was cruising along until he ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Coach Marty Testo made a visit to the mound. "I went out there and he looked at me and said 'Coach I'm going to get the next two kids out''' and I turned around and headed back to the dugout," said Testo.
Nelson struck out Spencer Marcus and induced a ground out from Mike Jaffe to get out of the jam.
Lacourse, Quagliaroli, and Vogt followed Nelson to the hill. Quagliaroli fanned a couple of Thoroughbred hitters in the eighth inning before handing the ball over to Vogt in the ninth.
After striking out the first two batters he faced, Vogt gave up a walk and then threw a wild pitch. "I wasn't concerned, I tried to focus on getting the batter to make contact," said Vogt, who registered his fifth save of the season. "I knew if I kept my fastball down and threw a strike good things would happen."
Vogt was right. He got Adam Cornachione to ground out to second to end the game.
Trevor Brucato was the hard-luck loser for Skidmore. He allowed one run on eight hits in his eight innings of work with five strikeouts and a walk.
"I never expected it to be a 1-0 ball game, said KSC Coach Ken Howe. "Hopefully we can get the bats going tomorrow, but I'll take another 1-0 win."
Keene State is making its third trip to the NCAA tournament in the past four years. It's the first-time the Owls are playing out of the New England region.
