MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Fresh off their first win of the season, the Keene State College baseball team picked up where they left off, building an 8-3 lead through four innings and a 9-5 edge through six in their finale at the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach.  However, Suffolk University scored 10 times in the final four innings and eight of the last nine runs overall to come storming back for a 13-10 victory over the Owls Friday afternoon at Ebbets Field.

Records

• Keene State:  1-9
• Suffolk:  6-3

How It Happened
The Rams scored a pair in their first trip to the plate, but KSC retaliated with four in their half of the inning and led for the vast majority of the game before Suffolk's five-run seventh turned a 9-5 Owl lead into a 10-9 deficit.  A patient Owl attack helped them load the bases with nobody out, and eventually score four times in the first inning despite not having any hits.  They worked four walks in the inning after taking eight in yesterday's win over Salem State University and were also hit twice while taking a 4-2 lead.  The hits eventually did come in the third, including a second long ball on the trip from Brendan Eaton in the third that helped move KSC in front 6-3.  A pair of singles and stolen bases from Junior Santos and Wyatt Daft to kick off the fourth were cashed in after a two-run double down the left field line for Joe Barter, making it an 8-3 game, seemingly putting the Owls well in control particularly considering the job Gregory Esposito was doing on the mound in relief.  The KSC junior righty entered in the second after one-plus innings from Zach Corrado and settled things down in a big way, tossing four scoreless innings with three hits and five strikeouts.  He now has 13 whiffs in 13 innings this season, pitching to a 3.46 earned run average.  Esposito retired 11 of his final 13 batters, putting up three consecutive zeroes to bridge the Owls into the later stages still carrying a five-run lead.

Suffolk capitalized on a balk and an error in the sixth by scoring twice off Jack Lang to get within 8-5, but KSC answered in the bottom half when Santos (single) and Daft (walk) again set the table by reaching base to start the inning.  Nathaniel Hudson's sacrifice bunt worked even better, turning into a single to load the bases, but the Owls' only run came across on a Caleb Piwnicki wild pitch as they let a chance for more go by the boards with the middle of the order coming up.

That proved very costly very quickly, as KSC allowed five runs in the top of the seventh to trail for the first time since the top of the first, and they did not have many answers for the Rams' offense after that.  Suffolk loaded the bases with nobody out in their big inning on a walk to the leadoff batter and then a pair of singles.  The first run came on a fielder's choice grounder by Blase Cormier that should have resulted in the first out but instead turned into a Keene State error, retired nobody, and kept the bases filled in a 9-6 game.  A sacrifice fly was next, bringing Suffolk within two, and the Rams continued to chip away after that.  They scored their five runs one by one, but in a five-batter span went from down four to up one.  Timothy McCarthy's bouncer back to Phil Nichols on the mound wound up plating the tying run before Suffolk went up 10-9 on Luke Harder's two-out RBI double.

Keene State went down in order in their half of the inning and then trailed by two after the Rams scored a run on an infield single with two outs in the eighth.  Down 11-9, the Owls mounted a push in their half when Santos reached on an error and Daft doubled to put the tying run in scoring position with nobody out.  However, KSC pushed just one run across on Barter's grounder to short to make it 11-10, and remained unable to contain Suffolk's offense late, as they immediately responded with two insurance runs in the ninth to go up 13-10.  That inning, just like the seventh, began on a free pass and escalated from there to a Jonny Gilbride run-scoring triple and Christian Seariac RBI base hit.

Eaton walked to start the Owls' last chance, and KSC did manage to bring the tying run to the plate in the inning, but a pair of strikeouts ended the game.  Whiffs became a big factor over the course of the game for Keene State, who was sent down by K 14 times, including twice in the seventh after they saw their lead disappear and twice in the ninth with the tying run at the plate.
Daft reached four times in the game out of the top spot in KSC's lineup, finishing 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, two runs scored, and a stolen base.  Barter doubled and drove in three runs, while Santos finished 2-for-5 and scored three times.  Eaton homered and walked, driving in two.

Six Rams had multi-hit games, including Marc Barbiglia and Dylan January who finished with three.  Suffolk had 16 hits overall (KSC nine).  The top eight in their order all recorded a hit, with seven of them reaching base at least twice.

Nichols (0-2) took the loss for the Owls on the mound, allowing four runs (three earned) and five hits in two innings.

Piwnicki (1-0) struck out four while allowing one run and two hits in two innings.  Garret Roberts picked up his third save with a scoreless ninth that featured two strikeouts.

Around the Horn

• Eaton, who had eight runs batted in over his first 21 career games spanning three years, has 10 in 10 games this year.  He is hitting .287 over his years as an Owl (31 games).
• Daft, a freshman from Jamestown, R.I., is five for his first 13 in his career with two doubles and has walked five times and been hit twice.
• The Owls have lost three straight to Suffolk, all by three or less (15-12, 6-4, 13-10) after winning the first two all-time meetings.  The Rams made four consecutive NCAA tournaments from 2015 through 2018 under head coach Anthony Del Prete, winning a pair of games in 2017.

Up Next

• Keene State returns north and will visit Eastern Nazarene College (6-7) on Wednesday, March 23 at 3:00 p.m.  The game will be at Libby Field in Weymouth, Mass.  The Owls' scheduled doubleheader at St. Joseph's College (Maine) on Sunday was cancelled earlier today.
• Suffolk, who finished their spring trip with an 11-6 loss to Mount Aloysius College after the game against KSC, hosts Emerson College (6-5) on Tuesday, March 22 at 3:30 p.m.