KEENE, N.H. – Should the Keene State College baseball team author a strong finish to the 2025 campaign, perhaps Friday afternoon at the friendly confines of their home field will be the day that can be looked upon that sparked a turnaround.  Entering off four consecutive losses this season and a somewhat unthinkable 19 consecutive losses to the University of Massachusetts-Boston that dated back to 2014, KSC vanquished both streaks – emphatically – racing to 10-0 and 9-5 victories in Little East Conference action.

Highlights...coming soon
Postgame Interview (Coach Blood)
Postgame Interview (Jake Jachym)
Postgame Interview (Evan McCue)

The Owls (10-13, 3-2 LEC) outscored the Beacons (17-10, 6-3 LEC) 19-0 over the first 15 innings of what turned into a lopsided twinbill and elevated KSC over .500 in league play through only five games.  UMB was knocked out of a first-place tie with Eastern Connecticut State University.

The key to both victories was shining performances from the starting arms on the mound.  Jake Jachym turned in an eight-inning four-hitter while not allowing any runs and striking out one, needing just 75 pitches.  He kept the Beacons off-balance and guessing all day, retiring the side in order four times.  In the second game, Camden Thomas did walk six but otherwise did not allow a hit and struck out seven in 6.2 innings.  The Beacons did not record their first hit until there was one out in the eighth inning, and did not have any extra-base hits in the second game after being limited to four hits (two doubles) in the opener.

Offensively, KSC put up six crooked numbers on the day and jumped in front early in the opener with a hit parade in a three-run third.  Luke Anderson began the inning with a base hit up the middle and was sacrificed over to second by Evan Cali.  Evan McCue, who had five hits, five runs, and drove in three on the day, came through with a line drive up the middle for a 1-0 KSC lead.  The Owls were not done, as Tommy Ahlers and Jonathan Chatfield followed with base hits, the latter of which by Chatfield brought home another run.  Shea Zina tacked on a sacrifice fly on a line drive to left that scored Ahlers.  It could have been even more trouble, but left fielder Richard Williams made a lunging grab to snare a ball that nearly went over his head.

Jachym needed just 10 pitches in a shutdown fourth inning and then only 12 in the fifth, working around a leadoff single by Elliot Miles thanks to Cali throwing him out trying to steal second with two outs.  The Owl junior from Westfield, Mass. sent down the Beacons 1-2-3 in the sixth even faster – on just six pitches – and KSC blew the game open in the bottom half as six of the first seven people reached, with the only batter not to (Luke Anderson) sacrificing Otis Follet and Alec Varano, who each had base hits, into scoring position.  Cali brought home Follet with a single into right and McCue then doubled home Varano to make it 5-0, chasing UMass-Boston starter Max Moss.  Connor Curtis then came in and could not find the strike zone, walking Ahlers and Chatfield consecutively (while throwing just one strike), the second of which forced home a run.  Two batters later with two outs, Ethan Nowak walked Rainha on a full count to make it 7-0.

KSC was well on their way from there, working four walks (three on full counts) in the bottom of the eighth to plate a run before Varano laced a single into center to give the Owls a de-facto walk-off in a run-rule victory, the first in program history over UMB.

Cali and McCue combined to go 4-for-9 and drive in three out of the top two spots in KSC's lineup, which produced four multi-hit efforts and a hit from eight of nine starters.  Rainha (2-3, RBI, 2 BB, R, K) and Varano (2-4, 2 RBI, R) also were productive in the No. 6 and No. 8 spots, respectively.

The Owls hammered Moss (2-2), who took the loss after allowing 11 hits and seven runs in 5.1 innings.  He walked two and struck out six.

Keene State made it a winning streak against Boston with a dominant win in the second game, scoring six times in the first three innings to build a 6-0 lead.  The top three in the Owls' order (Cali, McCue, and Ahlers) combined for seven hits including five doubles and reached base eight times.  It was that trio that got KSC off on the right foot right away to complete the sweep, as Cali legged out an infield single on a slow roller to shortstop and moved to second on a wild pitch before consecutive doubles by McCue and Ahlers made it 2-0.  The Beacons had a threat to answer in the second, as Miles reached on an error and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch with nobody out.  Thomas later walked Jacob Levine with one down and Miles stole third before Nick Farnacci walked as the visitors loaded the bases, but Breon Parker popped up weakly to shortstop on what was an infield fly and Mariano Jimenez skied to left as the Owls got out of one of few jams on the day.

After Thomas fired a seven-pitch third, KSC piled on a four-run third again sparked by the top of the order as Cali was plunked and McCue laced a double down the left field line to put two in scoring position immediately.  A wild pitch brought home a run before Ahlers roped a two-bagger of his own in the same direction to left to make it 4-0.  Chatfield then followed with the third double of the inning to plate Ahlers for a 5-0 lead.  Zina put runners on the corners with a base hit to left, and that proved important when Rainha bounced into a fielder's choice to second.

KSC blew the game open while Thomas was in the middle of retiring 12 consecutive Beacons from the second through the opening batter of the top of the sixth.  He whiffed two in an impressive fifth, which ended when Jimenez popped out in foul territory to Anderson.

Follet cracked his first career home run at the Owl Athletic Complex to lead off the sixth, an opposite field shot on a 1-0 count, to make it 7-0, and a two-run double in the seventh by Rainha tacked on two more.

Thomas struck out pinch-hitters Connor Seeley and Jayden LaFleur to start the seventh before walking the next two, ending his day at 109 pitches.  Troy Brennan then issued a two-out free pass to Nicolas Piscioniere to load the bases, but the inning ended when Ryan Slack was thrown out at the plate as a 1-2 pitch bounced in the dirt and got away from Cali before he recovered and tossed to Brennan covering the plate, who got the tag down.

UMass-Boston's first hit came in the form of a Derek Hawley floater that found a home in right center with one out in the eighth, and their first run of the day came 16 offensive innings in when Paden Larkins grounded out to first.  Four of the Beacons' 10 hits on the day came in the top of the ninth of the second game when trailing 9-2.  Just as an improbable comeback seemed slightly more possible, George Young got Larkins to fly to left and froze Seeley looking to give KSC an impressive and much-needed doubleheader sweep.

Before today, the Owls' last win against the Beacons came on April 19, 2014 when Shawn Egan fired eight one-hit innings while allowing just one unearned run as KSC won 5-1 at Brockton's Campanelli Stadium prior to the opening of UMB's current home, Monan Park.  The Owls' last sweep in the series came in 2013 when they posted 4-3 (11 innings) and 13-4 victories.

The wins also snapped a four-game slide this season, which began when they had a chance to sweep Rhode Island College at home on March 28 before dropping the second game 6-3.

Thomas improved to 3-2 with 6.2 hitless innings, walking six and striking out seven.

Jonny Pagano (3-2) was not effective for the Beacons, as the Owls tagged him for eight hits and six runs in three innings.  He struck out three.

KSC's staff whiffed 11 overall in the second game and is 4-1 when striking out double-digit opponent batters this season.  The Owls are also 8-3 when holding opponents to five runs or less.

McCue and Ahlers each had three-hit efforts in the nightcap, and every member of KSC's lineup had at least one hit.  Eight of KSC's 13 hits went for extra bases, including seven doubles and a home run.  Ahlers doubled three times and McCue twice.

Keene State is back in action Sunday (April 13) when they play a pair of originally-scheduled road games against Western Connecticut State University (5-12, 0-4 LEC) at the Winchendon School in Massachusetts starting at 12:00 p.m.