GORHAM, Maine -- The University of Southern Maine Huskies and the Keene State College Owls baseball teams split their Little East Conference doubleheader Saturday at the USM Baseball Stadium.  Southern Maine took the opener 6-5 behind the pitching of senior right-hander Ben Ives (Portland, Maine/Deering).  Keene State won the nightcap 9-4 as senior Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.) went 4 for 5 with three RBI.

             "There are no easy games in the Little East," said KSC Coach Ken Howe.  "I thought the guys showed a lot of charactor coming back in the second game."

            The split leaves the Huskies at 18-15 overall and 5-7 in LEC play.  The first game win extended the Huskies winning streak to four before the Owls broke the streak in the nightcap.  The Owls, who had their three-game winning streak snapped with the first game loss, are 27-10 overall and 7-5 in conference play.

            In the opener, the Huskies built a 6-2 lead after six innings before the Owls scored once in the seventh and twice in the eighth to pull within one.

            The Huskies scored an unearned run in the second, three runs in the third on a solo home run by freshman Forrest Chadwick (Gardiner, Maine), an RBI triple by senior Josh Mackey (Danvers, Mass.) and an RBI ground out by sophomore Tucker White (Deerfield, N.H./Coe-Brown Northwood), and two more runs in the sixth on a solo home run by sophomore Nick Grady (Whitefield, Maine/Erskine Academy) and RBI single by sophomore Christian Hamilton (Westbrook, Maine).

            The Owls nicked Ives for a run in the first when Doyon, who tripled, scored on a ground out, and the sixth on an infield error.  Doyon scored a second run in the seventh on junior Larry Longo's (Londonderry, N.H./Deerfield) RBI single.  The Owls got a pair of unearned runs in the eighth when Doyon's two-out fly ball was misplayed in the outfield, but USM junior reliever Dustin Stanton (Cornish, Maine/Sacopee Valley) shut the door on any further Keene State scoring to earn his third save.

            In the nightcap, Doyon missed hitting for the cycle by a single.  He had two doubles, a triple and his eighth home run of the season.  He tripled and scored in the first inning, then hit a three-run homer to finish a four-run uprising in the second.  Doyon led off the fifth with a double to spark another four-run rally.

            Junior right-hander Jeff Pelkey (Fitzwilliam, N.H./Monadnock) picked up his sixth win of the season going the first five innings.  Pelkey allowed only six hits and walked none while striking out three.

            Southern Maine is back in action on Tuesday (4:00 p.m.) hosting Bowdoin College.  Keene State is off until next Friday (12:00 p.m.) when it hosts Eastern Connecticut State University.

(Courtesy USM Sports Information)