MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Five of the first six batters reached for Middlebury College to begin the bottom of the seventh inning as the host Panthers scored four times, overtaking the Keene State College baseball team in an eventual 6-5 win in non-conference action Thursday afternoon at the Middlebury Baseball and Softball Complex.
 
The Owls (3-5) led for most of the afternoon, including 4-1 in the fourth inning, but lost their third one-run game in six days and have dropped five consecutive games.  Middlebury, a 28-13 NCAA tournament team and NESCAC champion a season ago, improved to 5-2, including 4-0 at home.
 
KSC struck first in the opening inning as they turned an Evan Cali leadoff walk into a run without the benefit of a hit and then retook a 2-1 lead in the second on Otis Follet's leadoff home run.  Trey Kuzmeski, one of eight Owl pitchers on the day, struck out two in the bottom half as KSC continued to build momentum.  After stranding two in scoring position to end the third, Follet again sparked an uprising with a one-out single in the fourth.  Cody Quinn followed with a base hit of his own to put two on, and Luke Anderson walked to load the bases.  Cali drove home a run with a single on what equated to a swinging bunt to make it 3-1, and the Owls still had the bases full.  Evan McCue then lofted a sacrifice fly to deep center to plate another for a 4-1 Owl lead.
 
Keene State's bullpen day on the mound was working early, as Evan LeVasseur fired a scoreless fourth with a strikeout and Kyle Palardy put up a zero in the sixth to keep it a 4-2 game entering the seventh.
 
But things spiraled quickly after that, as after stranding a runner in scoring position in the seventh, the Panthers got a leadoff single from Sam Gersch and an RBI triple from Pablo Spielman-Rodriguez to quickly get within 4-3 and put the tying run 90 feet away.  The Owls could not stop the bleeding, as Andrew Baay tied the game with a base hit up the middle.  A liner to left gave KSC and George Young the first out of the frame, but Carter Chi hit the right center gap with a single to put runners at the corners.  A failed pickoff by reliver Dylan Ellison put Middlebury ahead, and Gus Parker then whacked a single into left to plate Chi to make it 6-4.

The Owls went down 1-2-3 in the eighth, but made things interesting with a two-out rally in the ninth as Lucas Rogers' base hit to center brought the tying run to the plate.  Ethan Rainha then worked a walk before Derek Finlay – king of the clutch hit early in the season – made it 6-5 and put the tying run in scoring position with his base hit up the middle.  KSC ultimately came up just short though, as Dylan Knightly locked down the save by getting Trevor Snow to fly to right to end the game.
 
Three of the Owls' five defats on the season are now by a single run, though they have allowed a combined 65 runs in their five losses (14 in their three wins).  KSC is averaging six runs per game during the current five-game skid and has scored five, eight, and 13 runs in three of the defeats.
 
"We are not doing enough in all phases of the game right now," said KSC head coach Justin Blood after his team allowed seven hits in the final two defensive innings (half of Middlebury's total).  "You can't beat good teams if you don't execute at the right times."
 
Young (0-1) took the loss, allowing four hits and four runs in the seventh while recording one out.
 
Stefano Yozzo (1-0) allowed three hits and one run over 3.2 innings while walking three and striking out three to get the win.  Knightly's save was his first.
 
Three Owls had two-hit games, including Rogers, Finlay, and Follet – each of whom drove in a run.  Five different KSC batters drove in a single run, but outside of Follet's home run in the second, their other eight hits were all singles.
 
KSC is 1-2 against Middlebury all-time, winning in Keene in 2000 before losing one-run games in Vermont in 2024 and another today.
 
The Owls travel to take on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (3-5) for a doubleheader that begins at noon on Sunday, March 15 before continuing on to Pennsylvania for three games against Arcadia University next week.