KEENE, N.H. 5/6/11 – Instead of hosting the Keene State baseball team will be traveling to Mansfield, Conn. for the Little East tournament after dropping both ends of a doubleheader 12-6 and 8-6 against nationally ranked and conference front-runner Eastern Conn. State University at Owl Athletic Complex on Friday.

            Keene State (27-12, 7-7 LEC) needed to sweep the Warriors to win the LEC regular season title and the right to host the tournament.  Needing to win just one game on Friday, Eastern Conn. (29-8, 11-3 LEC) secured its eighth outright Little East Conference regular-season championship with its first game victory.  They also shared the crown three times.

            Keene State will be the fourth seed in the six-team, double-elimination tournament and will face third  seed UMass-Dartmouth on Wednesday (7 p.m.) at the Eastern Baseball Stadium.

            "It was a tough day for us," said KSC Coach Ken Howe.  "We came in with high expectations of bringing the tournament here.  We couldn't seem to stop their bats in the first game.  In the second game, we had a tough eighth inning and weren't able to come back."

            Eastern Conn. put a crooked number on the scoreboard from the second through the fifth inning to go up 11-3.  The Warriors had 17 hits in their opening game win.  Sophomore Joe Balowski (Berlin, Conn.) had three hits and knocked in a four runs to lead the Warriors' offense.

            Senior Tyler DiPrato (Suffield, Conn.) had four hits and junior Erik Bergstrom (Enfield, Conn.) belted his second home run of the season for the Owls, who had 15 hits in the opener.  Junior Juan Bisono (New Britain, Conn.) and freshman Nick Vita (Spofford, N.H.) each had three hits in the game.  

            Junior pitcher Tim Thiesing (South Grafton, Mass.) took the loss for the Owls, dropping his record to 2-2.  Jim Schult (Wappingers Falls, N.Y) was the winning pitcher for the Warriors.

            Eastern Conn. scored five runs in the eighth inning to overtake the Owls in the nightcap.  Senior Tyler Turgeon (Norwich, Conn.) had a two-run double and sophomore Drew Accomando (Monroe, Conn.) brought in two runs with a single in the uprising.

            KSC scored single runs in the first and third innings to a take a 2-1 lead.  Bergstrom had an RBI single in the first and senior Bobby Doyon (Keene, N.H.) brought home a run with a sacrifice fly in the third.

            Junior Greg Bates (Salem, N.H.) gave the Owls a 4-3 lead in fourth with a two-out, two-run single.  KSC went up 6-3 in the seventh on a clutch two-out single up the middle that plated two more runs.  KSC was unable to hold on to the lead.

            Diprato had two more hits in the second game.  He was 6-10 in the doubleheader.  Bates went 4-5 and Bergstrom, Bisono and Vitta each had two hits in the second game. 

            Turgeon had four hits and three RBIs and senior Robert Perry added three hits and two RBIs for the Warriors.  Both Turgeon and Perry hit solo home runs.

            Junior Jeff Pelkey (Fitzwilliam, N.H.) started for KSC. He went five innings, allowing three runs on five hits while fanning three batters.  Junior Dan Wogksch (Bethel, Conn.) pitched a couple of strong innings before giving way to sophomore Eric Perrault (Salem, N.H.), who took the loss (2-2).

            Junior Michael Hepple (Newington, Conn.), the brother of KSC basketball player Jim Hepple, pitched the final 2.1 innings to pick up the win (3-1).  He struck out six, including the side in the eighth with runners on first and second.

            Between games, Keene State honored seniors Ed Lacourse (Manchester, N.H.), Corey Vogt (Suffield, Conn.), Ryan Boden (Keene, N.H.), DiPrato and Doyon.