NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. – The Keene State College baseball team made themselves right at home on Tuesday night despite being an hour and a half away from their actual home field.  Junior Tommy Ahlers surpassed 100 career hits while three others recorded three hits and freshman Nathan Pirog struck out seven in four innings on the mound as the Owls rolled to a 17-5 win over Colby-Sawyer College at the New England Baseball Complex.

The Owls (2-4) scored in each of their first four offensive innings – the last of which a 13-run outburst in which they sent 18 batters to the plate and banged out eight hits in the bottom of the fourth.  The frame began with back-to-back doubles from Luke Anderson and Evan Cali to plate a run before the milestone hit by Ahlers, an RBI single, made it 6-2.  Lucas Rogers followed two batters later with a piece of opposite field hitting that tacked on another run, but the Owls were far from done, scoring the next 10 runs with two outs.  Ahlers had another hit in the inning, this one a two-run double that plated Anderson and Quin Barton to make it 12-2.  Rogers added a two-RBI double of his own into the left field corner to give him two hits in the marathon inning, and Shea Zina later plated two more with a two-run single that made it 17-2.  After being limited to nine runs over their first four games, KSC has come to life in the last two with 29 runs – including a span of seven straight innings with a run in which they scored 27 times.

The huge inning for the Owls broke open what was a 4-2 game after the top of the fourth, as Evan Dennis launched a home run to right center to bring the Chargers, who trailed 2-0 after one, back within two.  Dennis doubled to lead off the second, moved to third on a fly out, and then scored on a passed ball as Colby-Sawyer drew within 2-1, but Ahlers tripled to left with two down in the second to score Cali.  KSC made it 4-1 in the third when Otis Follet skied a ball to left that Cooper O'Brien dove for and it landed behind him and bounded away for an inside-the-park home run.

Behind plenty of offensive support, six Owl pitchers combined to strike out 16 Chargers.  Pirog went the first four innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits while walking one and striking out seven.  Liam Conley (1-0) earned the win in relief by striking out the side in the sixth.  Freshman Luke Mauri also struck out the side in the eighth, while Jack Lang had a pair of whiffs in the ninth.

"I am happy with our at-bats overall, obviously the 4th inning changed the game," said Keene State head coach Justin Blood.  "Nate Pirog set the tone on the mound, attacked, and got them in swing mode.  As a staff we created a lot of swings and misses today.  Solid effort overall, excited to get back on the field again tomorrow."

Ahlers, Rogers, and Zina all finished 3-for-4 and drove in four runs.  Cali added a 3-for-4 effort with two doubles, an RBI, and scored four times.  KSC had nine extra-base hits.

Ahlers is the 44th Owl in program history to reach the 100-hit milestone.  He hit .301 in his freshman season and .316 in his sophomore campaign, and is now 6-for-9 with five RBIs in KSC's back-to-back wins.  Over his career (82 games, 81 starts), he has 26 doubles, five triples, six home runs, and 69 runs batted in while hitting .314 with an .861 OPS.

Will Carpenter (0-1) took the loss for Colby-Sawyer, allowing nine runs (all earned) and 11 hits in 3.1 innings.  He walked two and struck out four.

KSC is back in action tomorrow (Wednesday, March 12) when they visit Brandeis University (4-5) at Yetten Field at 3:30 p.m.