DANBURY, MASS. 4/9/11 – Seeing its first Little East Conference action of the season, the Keene State College softball team split a doubleheader against Western Conn. at Westside Field on Saturday, taking the opener 3-0 and falling 5-3 in the second game. 

Emily Albin was the story for the Owls in the first game.  The junior pitcher from Bethel, Conn., tossed a complete game four-hitter with five strikeouts to improve her record to 6-2.

The Owls (16-6, 1-1 LEC) managed only five hits in the game, but made them count.  KSC took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on sophomore Kayla Joyce's (Bridgewater, Mass.) third home run of the season, a solo shot over the fence in left field.

The Owls added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a two-run double by freshman Molly Dussault (Weare, N.H.). 

The Owls went up 2-0 in the second game, scoring single runs in the first and second innings.  Sophomore Nicole Dupuis (Fitchburg, Mass.) had an RBI single up the middle in the first and Dussault hit her first round-tripper of the season in the second.

The Colonials (12-4, 1-1 LEC) scored all of their runs in the third inning, scoring five runs on five hits.  Luigina Facchini had a two-run home run for WCSU in the inning.

KSC got one run back in the top of the fifth on a RBI single by Joyce. 

Junior Haley Chandler (Wakefield, Mass.), the Owls' leadoff hitter, had three of KSC's nine hits in the game.

Junior Courtney Savoie (Stratham, N.H.) started for the Owls and took the loss (3-4). She went 2.1 innings, giving up three runs on four hits with one strikeout.

Keene State is at UMass-Dartmouth on Sunday for an LEC twinbill.