Owls Fall to Wheaton in NCAA Tournament

           HARWICH, MASS. 5/15/08 - Third seed Keene State College dropped into the loser's bracket of the NCAA New England regional baseball tournament with a 12-2 loss to second seed Wheaton College at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, Mass. on Thursday night.

            Keene State (34-10) will play LEC rival Southern Maine on Friday at 1 p.m.  It will be the sixth meeting between the Owls and the Huskies this season.  Wheaton takes on top seed and undefeated Trinity College at 4:30 p.m.

            "I thought we competed pretty well for the first five and a half innings and hit the ball hard, but didn't have much to show for it" said KSC Coach Ken Howe. "Gingras kept us off balance and did a good job of keeping us off the bases."  

            Owl senior starter Phil Mabey (Williamstown, Mass.) went six innings, giving up three runs on six hits with four walks. His record drops to 4-3.    

Adam Gingras (Woonsocket, R.I.), a junior, gave the Lyons a solid start giving up two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and one walk. His record improves to 8-0.   

            Wheaton jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.  Sophomore Paul Malaguti (Andover, Mass.) led off with a double to right and scored on a wild pitch.  The Lyons loaded the bases, but Mabey got out of trouble when he got junior shortstop Nick Pecora (Highland Park, N.J.) to fly out to center.

            Pecora extended the Lyons lead to 2-0 in the third with a RBI single that just got past Owl junior second baseman Jamie Chevalier (Amherst, Mass.).

            Gingras gave up just one hit, a single to Ford, though four innings.

            In the bottom of the fifth, Greg Ford (Nashua, N.H.)worked a one out walk and came home on a two-run blast by senior shortstop Ryan Jones (Nashua, N.H.). Jones' dinger, his second of the season, went just under the Whitehouse Field scoreboard in right center.

            "I though I hit it well, but I didn't think it was going to go out," said Jones.  "At that point it gave us a shot to stay in the game."

            After senior second baseman Jake Yagjian led off the seventh with a hard single to left, sophomore Rob Delbuono (Trumbull, Conn.) replaced Mabey on the mound.  Senior third baseman Scott Guillerault (South Portland, Me.) followed with a single and freshman designated hitter Sean Munley (Trenton, N.J.) reached on an error to load the bases.  Junior right fielder Robert Foote (Walpole, Mass.) lined a single to left center to put Wheaton on top 3-2.  Freshman first baseman Eric Alberta (Nashua, N.H.) cleared the bases with a line shot out to left center that gave the Lyons a 6-2 lead.

            Malaguti made it a 7-2 game with a long home run, his fourth of the season, deep over the right field fence.

            The Lyons batted around in the top of the ninth scoring five runs against freshman Mike Murray (Clinton, Mass.) and sophomore Jameson Wentworth (Peabody, Mass.).

            For the second weekend in a row, the Owls will have to battle out of the losers' bracket to remain alive in the tournament.  "Guys are a little tired, but so is everyone else.  We need to step up against a Southern Maine team that we're very familiar with this year. Hopefully we can bounce back."

             "We'll forget about this tomorrow and come out and play our game.  We have a good shot at beating Southern Maine tomorrow."

            Jones had two of the Owls' five hits. 

            Malaguiti had three of the Lyons' 14 hits.  

Keene State was scheduled to play Wheaton during the regular season (May, 2), but the game was cancelled.

            The Owls defeated the Lyons twice (6-3 and 4-1) during last year's NCAA New England regional tournament.