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Keene State College

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KEENE STATE OWLS
1
Keene State KSC 17-20, 6-8 LEC
5
Winner Vermont State Castleton VTSUC 7-28, 4-10 LEC
Keene State KSC
17-20, 6-8 LEC
1
Final
5
Vermont State Castleton VTSUC
7-28, 4-10 LEC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Keene State KSC 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 2
Vermont State Castleton VTSUC 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 X 5 8 0

W: Owen Phelps (2-2) L: Jachym, Jake (2-5)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Ryan Hearn, Sports Information Assistant

Baseball Misses Chance to Clinch LEC Tournament Berth, Loses to Castleton

Weeks After Dismantling Spartans, KSC Falls 5-1

CASTLETON, Vt. – The Keene State College baseball team's path into the Little East Conference tournament for the first time since 2017 was pretty simple – win and have Plymouth State University lose at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and the Owls would be in.  The Beacons, fighting for the top seed, did vanquish the Panthers 7-2 by scoring the final seven runs, but the Owls could not hold up their end of the bargain, losing to Vermont State University Castleton 5-1 in a conference contest Tuesday at Spartan Field.

Records
  • Keene State:  17-20, 6-8 LEC
  • Vermont State Castleton:  7-28, 4-10 LEC
How It Happened
The path remains simple – perhaps even simpler – for KSC entering Friday's final conference twinbill at home against PSU:  win one game and they get into the postseason.  However, it will come down to the final day because the Owls left nine on base and scored only one run against the pitching staff with the worst ERA in the conference despite outhitting the Spartans 11-8.  Tommy Ahlers (3-4) and Otis Follet (3-4) both had three-hit games.  Shea Zina drove in KSC's lone run with a double in the fourth that halved the deficit to 2-1.

Troublesome defense helped the Owls allow three unearned runs, including two of the three that were scored in the bottom of the fourth as Castleton immediately plated three just after KSC had drawn within one.  That inning began with a Mikey Raby Jr. double, and he moved to third on a wild pitch.  An RBI groundout scored him to make it 3-1.  Jake Jachym then got a fly out to center for the second out and a grounder to first that should have ended the inning.  However, Jack Boyle reached after that ball was misplayed, and Hunter Perkins followed with an RBI triple and Jackson Cardozo and run-scoring single as KSC allowed a pair of damaging runs.

Keene State left two people on base three times in the game, including in the first inning with a chance to jump on top and then again in the fifth inning with a chance to respond after falling behind by four as Ahlers singled and Jonathan Chatfield walked, but Follet struck out.

Jake Jachym (2-5) took the loss, allowing five runs (two earned) on eight hits in six innings.  He walked one and struck out three.

Owen Phelps got the win for the Spartans, improving to 2-2 with five scoreless innings in relief of Joe Russell.  He allowed five hits, walked one, and struck out two.  Russell went the first four and allowed six hits and one run while walking one and whiffing three.

KSC pounded the ball into the dirt most of the day, grounding out 14 times.

"Castleton threw strikes, made plays, and got a couple knocks with runners on," said Owls head coach Justin Blood.  "I thought Jake and Dan (Cantafi) pitched well.  We didn't secure the baseball in a couple spots and it burned us.  Offensively, we pressed and had some bad swings early in counts."

KSC, who crushed Castleton 19-5 two weeks ago on their home field, has not won a road game against the Spartans since they joined the conference.

VTSU had Tyler McLain finish 2-for-4 with a double and a pair of RBI to pace their offense, while Cardozo was 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

Keene State has a non-conference home game against Worcester State University tomorrow (Wednesday, May 1) at 3:00 p.m.
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