KEENE, N.H. 4/16/11 – Senior catcher Tyler DiPrato's (Suffield, Conn.) went eight-for-11with four runs scored and three RBI's, as the Keene State College baseball team dropped Little East Conference foe Western Connecticut State University 15-12 and 6-2 in doubleheader action on Saturday afternoon at Owl Athletic Complex.

The Owls, (20-6, 5-2 LEC) who have won seven in a row and eight of their last nine earned their first sweep of the season. "We've played some other conference doubleheaders but weren't able to come away with a sweep," said DiPrato. "It feels good to get that sweep and right now we are hot and we need to just keep it going."

The Colonials (10-12, 2-5 LEC) who had won four in a row last week, have now dropped their last three contests.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth in game one, the Owls crossed the plate seven times to break the game wide open against a tough WestConn pitcher in senior Billy Armstrong (Moodus, Conn.) who came into Saturday's doubleheader third in the conference in strikeouts. "Armstrong is a great pitcher," said DiPrato. "We knew that we had to attack early in the count and get him out of the game and it paid off for us."

DiPrato, Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.), Kyle Morrill (Auburn, N.H.), Erik Bergstrom (Enfield, Conn.) and Juan Bisono (New Britain, Conn.) each had RBI's in the inning extending KSC's lead to 8-2.

After adding seven more runs in the next three innings, the Colonials fought back with six runs in the top of the eighth to cut the Owls lead to 15-12. But KSC would stop the bleeding, and sophomore pitcher Joe Katin (Byfield, Mass.) would pitch the final two innings allowing no hits and only one base runner to pick up his second save of the season.

Junior Tim Thiesing (South Grafton, Mass.) picked up the win, going five innings allowing three earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts.

Armstrong took the loss for the Colonials, allowing a career-high 15 hits, 10 runs (nine of them earned) and walked one.

Doyon led the way with four RBI's for the Owls, while DiPrato knocked in three.

In game two, the Owls jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly from Larry Longo (Londonderry, N.H.) scoring Doyon for the 1-0 advantage. In the third, Longo would add another RBI on a double down the left-field line scoring DiPrato for the 2-0 lead.

WestConn would even the game in the fourth, on RBI's from David Simone (Danbury, Conn.) and Zack Dandrea (Wanaque, N.J.) to make it 2-2.

After that the Owls would score four unanswered runs, with Longo, freshman David Vita (Spofford, N.H.) and Bergstrom doing the damage in KSC's 6-2 victory.

Doyon and DiPrato each went three-for-five to lead the Owls offensively. Vita also had two hits in the nine-hole for KSC in the win.

Junior starter Jeff Pelkey (Fitzwilliam, N.H.) went five innings allowing four hits and two runs to pick up his team leading fifth win of the season. Sophomore Adam Stanclift (Keene, N.H.) and senior Ed Lacourse (Manchester, N.H.) each tossed two scoreless innings apiece to shutdown the Colonial offense.

Sophomore Conor Bierfeldt (Torrington, Conn.) took the loss for WestConn, allowing five earned runs on 11 hits in seven innings of work.

The Owls return to action tomorrow, with a key regional game at Wheaton College. "Wheaton is an extremely strong club," said KSC head coach Ken Howe. "We play the tough teams for a reason and that's because we want to play against quality competition and go to the NCAA's so we have to be ready to play tomorrow." The game is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.