KEENE, N.H. – Freshman
Mason Pingree needed just 75 pitches to strike out seven in six scoreless innings,
Derek Finlay logged a pair of web-gem caliber plays in the same inning, and the Keene State College baseball team's offense put up three crooked numbers in the middle innings as the Owls cruised to a 12-0 shutout of Worcester State University in non-conference action Wednesday afternoon at the Owl Athletic Complex.
KSC (21-14) snapped a mini two-game slide, beating Worcester (15-18) for the second time in three years in blowout fashion after taking the 2024 meeting 9-2. Today, the visitors' threats were sparse against Pingree and a pair of Owl relievers, as they managed just five singles and saw KSC record 27 outs on just 109 pitches as a staff (Worcester's eight arms threw 176 pitches).
The Owls struck first right away as
Trevor Snow walked, stole second, and then scored on Finlay's base hit into left. KSC left the bases loaded in the second to keep it 1-0 but added another in the third as
Ethan Rainha and
Evan Cali notched consecutive two-out singles to put runners on the corners before the pair executed a successful double steal. Up by a pair, the Owls began pulling away in earnest in the middle frames, taking a 5-0 lead in the fourth on Finlay's sacrifice fly and a two-run double to the opposite field for
Jonathan Chatfield. Chatfield added another run-scoring double two innings later and Cali singled into center three batters later to make it 7-0 through six.
That would be plenty of offensive support for Pingree (3-4), who had little trouble with the Lancers' lineup, holding them without an extra-base hit for the sixth time this season. Any trouble he might have been in was never apparent, as he just as quickly got out of it. In the second, Nathan Thurber (who had two of the visitors' five hits) led off the frame with a base hit and was sacrificed to second. Tad Giardina then reached on a fielder's choice bouncer back to Pingree, but the KSC freshman hurler bounced back to strike out Boris Valdez and Anthony Burgess. The only other trouble he might have appeared to be in was in the fourth when Thurber singled with one down and Giardina put two on with two down with his own base hit, but Pingree picked off Thurber on a close play at second as Thurber kicked up a big cloud of dust after the call. Jeremy Delacruz began the Worcester sixth with a single deep in the shortstop hole, but Pingree got Riggs Catlin to immediately bounce into a 6-3 double play and later whiffed Mason Bates to end his outing with an exclamation point.
The game got away even further from the Lancers after that, as KSC's five-run seventh that included a two-run single for
Emmett Borenstein made it 12-0.
Luciano Frezza,
Anthony DiGiacomo, and
Cody Quinn all also took bases loaded walks in the fame.
