BOSTON, Mass. – The No. 5 seed Keene State College baseball team was unable to overcome striking out 14 times and making five errors as they lost to No. 22 ranked and No. 2 seed Eastern Connecticut State University 8-5 in a first round Little East Conference tournament game that started four hours later than originally scheduled and was over four hours long, including another weather delay in the game, on Wednesday at Monan Park.
 
Records

• Keene State:  20-21
• No. 22 Eastern Connecticut:  28-11

 
How It Happened
The Owls fell behind 4-0 through three innings before clawing to within 5-3 in the seventh, but the Warriors scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth to open a five-run lead and that was enough to give KSC a loss in their first postseason tournament game since 2017.
 
Keene State did load the bases in the top of the ninth and scored two runs without getting a hit, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of Brendan Eaton with two down, but he struck out to end the game, the season-high-tying 14th whiff for the Owl offense on the night as KSC was unable to capitalize on Eastern Connecticut's pitching staff hitting six batters and walking four.
 
The Owls left 10 people on base, including five in the final three innings.  They stranded at least one on in eight of nine innings.
 
The Warriors, who finished in a first place tie at 13-3 in the league with the University of Massachusetts-Boston but were swept at home by the Beacons to lose the tiebreaker, opened the scoring in the first when Josh Cofrancesco beat out a ground ball to short, stole second, and then scored on Ryan Parent's single to right.  KSC starter Jake Jachym (2-6) limited the damage to one, but the Owls could not manage much against Dan Driscoll (3-2), who allowed one run and four hits with nine strikeouts in six innings.  He threw 104 pitches.
 
The Warriors made it 4-0 in the third after the first two batters were set down, as Lucas Malave walked and Ray Leonzi singled up the middle before Tiernan Lynch cracked a home run over the left field fence to give ECSU a big cushion.
 
Keene State had a chance to answer, as Jonathan Chatfield started the fourth with a base hit and Otis Follet walked, but Shea Zina's line drive to first turned into a double play and Eaton was sent down on strikes to end the inning.
 
The Owls got on the board in the sixth, making it 4-1 when Follet was plunked and Zina singled to put runners on the corners before KSC executed a double steal.  However, they surrendered the run right back in the bottom half when Zach Donahue cracked a double to left center to score Jason Claiborn, who was hit with a pitch to start the inning.
 
KSC had chances late against a pair of ECSU relievers that labored, but could not take full advantage.  In the seventh, a single, error, and walk loaded the bases with nobody out in a 5-1 game.  After Evan Cali flew to left, Tommy Ahlers was plunked to make it a 5-2 game in pouring rain.  After Chatfield struck out for the second out, the umpires called for another delay – one that lasted over an hour.  Once that was done, a wild pitch made it a 5-3 game, but Follet struck out to end the inning.
 
George Young fired a 1-2-3 seventh to keep the Owls within two, and KSC put the tying runs on in the eighth after Eaton was hit and Evan McCue singled into center, but Hamilton Barnes grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.  An ugly three-run bottom of the eighth then put the Owls down five.
 
Keene State again loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the ninth, but could not get a key hit with runners in scoring position.  Follet was hit with a pitch to make it 8-4 with the bases still loaded, and an RBI ground out for Zina made it a three-run game, but that was as close as KSC got.

"We had a couple opportunities to have big innings offensively, but didn't cash in," said Keene State head coach Justin Blood.  "Eastern did what good teams do - punish you when you make mistakes.  I liked our energy and our compete.  It was a long day and we handled the variables well."
 
The defeat moves the Owls into the losers bracket, where KSC will take on No. 6 seed Rhode Island College tomorrow (Thursday, May 9) at now 3:30 p.m.  The two teams split in mid-March in Providence, with RIC winning 9-7 before KSC took the second game 4-3 in the conference-opening twinbill.  Today, the Anchormen were hammered 11-3 by host UMass-Boston.
 
Today's third first round game between the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and the University of Southern Maine – at one point scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m. tonight – will be played instead tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
 
Keene State has lost 10 straight against ECSU, and has never won a game at Monan Park since it opened.