PLYMOUTH, N.H. – A little more than three weeks ago, the Keene State College baseball team stood at 8-13 and 1-2 in the Little East Conference following a 12-7 road loss to Eastern Connecticut State University. Now, 23 days later, they have done something only one previous Owls team has done since joining the league prior to the 1998 season – win an outright regular season championship.
KSC (21-15, 13-3 LEC) needed just one win on Friday to lock up the top seed in the league tournament and ensure it to be held at the Owl Athletic Complex next Wednesday through Saturday, with any tiebreaker scenarios working to their benefit, but instead left no doubt, sweeping Plymouth State University (6-22, 3-13 LEC) 4-3 and 13-1 while never trailing at Parish Field.
The Owls now join only the 2008 team, which went on to win the tournament on their home field with 21-2 and 14-7 championship day victories over the University of Southern Maine, as league regular season champions in the Division III era. KSC also shared titles in 2006 and 2010, part of a stretch in which they made the NCAA tournament four times in six years. Those hopes can begin to return to the Elm City under head coach
Justin Blood, who has taken the program from a 3-19 Covid-altered season in 2021 and 6-28 campaign the following year in his first season to a conference regular season champion and 13-3 mark three years later.
It did not always seem this would be the season for that to occur for the first half of it as KSC staggered to an 8-13 record over the first 21 games, including four consecutive losses (two in non-conference action) after they won their LEC opener over Rhode Island College on March 28. They would go on to lose just one more conference matchup all season, and after two wins today, are now 13-2 since sweeping the now No. 2 seed University of Massachusetts-Boston 10-0 (8 innings) and 9-5 on April 11. That doubleheader, against a program KSC had lost 19 straight times to, acted as a springboard for success, as eight days later the Owls would become the only team in the league this season to sweep the Southern Maine on Senior Day. A hiccup at home against Eastern Connecticut on April 22 did not derail KSC's quest, as they bounced back to sweep the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on the road and saw UMass-Boston sweep ECSU last weekend to put the Owls back in control of their own fate. They left nothing to chance from there, finishing a season sweep of Vermont State University Castleton this past Tuesday before matching last year's win total with a pair of victories today.
"This group has a lot to be proud of," said Blood, who previously presided over a program turnaround at the University of Hartford when they were at the Division I level. "Winning a regular season title is a great accomplishment. Our goal has been to get back to the NCAA tournament. Preparing for Wednesday starts now."
The Owls will open the LEC tournament against No. 6 seed, yet defending league tournament champion, UMass-Dartmouth on Wednesday (May 7) at 9:00 a.m. The day will also feature second-seeded UMass-Boston and No. 5 seed Rhode Island College at 11:30 a.m. as well as No. 3 seed Eastern Connecticut and No. 4 seed Southern Maine at 2:00 p.m. KSC took both meetings from UMD exactly a week ago, 4-1 and 8-0 on the road, and the Corsairs moved down a rung in the standings on the final day after they gave up 26 runs while being swept on the road by ECSU as Rhode Island College won a pair convincingly at Castleton (10-2 and 14-5).
It is the first time since 2012 and 2013 that KSC has qualified for the LEC tournament in consecutive seasons. They made it just once (in 2017) before returning to the postseason a year ago.
Keene State's pair of wins today to match last year's win total overall were spurred by more strong pitching efforts and timely offense in the opener before an early barrage in the nightcap.
Jake Jachym (4-1) got the ball in the opener and scattered nine hits over seven scoreless frames, striking out six.
Liam Conley notched his third save with an inning of work, including striking out Danny Quinn to end the game with the tying run on first.
KSC took an early lead thanks to
Jonathan Chatfield's ninth home run of the season, tied for sixth on the Owl single-season list, and nursed that 1-0 lead until the seventh when
Ethan Rainha cracked an RBI double and
Anthony DiGiacomo a run-scoring single to make it 3-0. Jachym worked around a one-out Sam Malgeri double by striking out Scooter Summa, and then a first-and-third, two out jam by getting Sam Salvi to line to center, where
Tommy Ahlers made a diving catch to end the inning.
The Panthers, who were eliminated from conference tournament contention entering the day, got two runs off
Troy Brennan in a laborious eighth to draw within a run, but the Owl reliever whiffed Summa to keep it a 3-2 game and KSC got the run back in the ninth on DiGiacomo's second hit and second RBI of the day. It proved to be big, as Brendan Flynn made it 4-3 with two outs in the bottom half, but Conley struck out Quinn on a 2-2 pitch to end the game and lock up the top seed for KSC.
The Owls turned the nightcap into a into a rout early by scoring 11 times across the third, fourth, and fifth innings including six times in the third to expand a one-run lead to 7-0. KSC's run in the first frame came thanks to a first-and-third double steal in which
Evan Cali scored before Chatfield was tagged out between first and second. The Owls then teed off on Nick Wilson in the third, with Cali launching the first of two home runs in the inning with one down to make it 2-0.
Evan McCue then walked (and moved to second on a wild pitch) before Ahlers smoked a long ball over the left field fence to double the lead. Later in the inning,
Otis Follet added a two-run double into the right center gap to make it 6-0 and
Domminic Tagliaferro followed with a base hit to left to bring in another. Keene State kept going in the next two innings, taking a 9-1 lead in the fourth following a foul sacrifice fly by Rainha and a run-scoring base hit by Tagliaferro. An infield single and two-run double by Rainha in the next inning made it 12-1.
Camden Thomas started and pitched the first three innings for the Owls, allowing three hits and one run while striking out five.
Shea Zina (2-2) then fanned four while allowing three hits and two walks over the next three innings, ultimately getting credited with the win. KSC's staff struck out 10 Panthers in the second game as PSU ended the season with six straight losses and 3-5 at home.
"It took some timely hitting and defensive plays to win game one," added Blood. "Jachym did a really good job limiting damage and Conley did a great job closing it out. We swung the bats well in game two and keeping Thomas and Zina's pitch counts down gives us options for next week."
Alex Noel (3-5) took the loss in the opener for Plymouth despite throwing a complete game, allowing five hits and four runs (three earned) while walking three and striking out nine. Wilson (1-3) allowed five hits and seven runs (six earned) with six walks and two strikeouts in the nightcap.
KSC now shifts their attention to the conference tournament on their home field, where they are 10-3 (including a makeshift home game at Franklin Pierce University) this season. In 12 games at the Owl Athletic Complex, the Owls are hitting .333 as a team with Ahlers' posting an eye-popping .532 (25-for-47) average with eight doubles, three home runs, and 19 RBI.
Keene State finishes the season with the second-best team batting average in the league (.306) and third-best ERA.
"I think the biggest factor in our mid-season turnaround was our team taking ownership for the failures of the first half," said Blood. "After that, they could take the necessary steps to get on track. In order to right the ship, you have to steer it, and they have done that."
The Owls' ship will now return home and continue to try to steer them to new heights as the postseason begins Wednesday morning.
Stay tuned for more information regarding the Little East Conference tournament.
