MANCHESTER, N.H. – MerchantsAuto.Com Stadium roasting under a sweltering Friday afternoon sun set a battle of Little East Conference rivals as Keene State College subdued Plymouth State University 8-3.
Plymouth Starter Chip Hale (3-5) took the tough loss despite turning in a gutsy performance as he went seven innings, giving up one run on seven hits and striking out five Owls. Keene State’s junior lefty Jamie Morin (3-2) had three strikeouts in six innings of work and took the win for a Keene State team that played stellar defense behind him by turning in four double plays that helped squelched the Panthers’ inopportune offense.
PSU, on the other hand, had trouble in the field as they committed six errors that lead to seven of the eight runs to be unearned. “We out- pitched them and out-hit them in this one, but we continued to make bad, all-around plays in the field,” commented head coach Dennis McManus about his team’s defensive play after the game.
Among the bright spots for the Panthers was the four-for-four performance by senior centerfielder Josh Labossiere, who came into the game second on the team in hits with 27; and the continued hot hitting of junior co-captain John Pogorzelski, who was one for two with an RBI to go along with Hale’s impressive outing. For the Owls, junior third basemen Joe Rousseau was two-for-five with an RBI and first-year, Anthony Cipolla, had two hits in three tries and knocked in a pair in the win.
Two errors led to Keene jumping out to a one to nothing lead in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly by junior Ben Fournier. Keene then made it 3-0 in the fourth, after a leadoff double by Rousseau was cashed in on an RBI double by Cipolla. The Owls then wiped out a PSU, two-on, one-out, threat later that inning by spinning a nifty six-four-three double-play killing and allowing Morin to escape, unscathed.
The Panthers were able to get on the board for the first time in the bottom of the fifth, however. Sophomore Jay Kleponis led off the inning with a double, senior first baseman Jamie Aceto followed with a single to move Kleponis to third, and Pogorzelski came through with a fielder’s choice, RBI ground out to cut into the lead. In the sixth, both teams matched each other by scoring two times each. An RBI triple by Cipolla, followed by a wild pitch allowing him to score Keene enabled to extend their lead in the top-half, but the Panthers answered back in the bottom-half with an RBI double by junior Brandon Hodge and a sacrifice fly by Kleponis to run the score to 5-3. Keene would not look back from there, though, as they would score three more times and allowed first-year pitcher Ben Songberg to flex his 2.13 ERA and shut the door on the PSU offense for the remainder of the game.
When asked about the defensive play behind him, starter Chip Hale remarked, “It happens. As a pitcher, you have to try to pick your defense up and just keep battling out there.” He battled for seven tough innings. “I felt good, I had good control all day, but I started to leave some pitches up when I was getting tired.”
With the win, Keene State moves to second place in the LEC at17-9 and 4-1 in conference play. PSU moves to 8-13 overall and 3-4 in the LEC. Both teams met again on Sunday for another critical conference match up where Keene defeated the Panthers 8-3.