Owls set for LEC baseball tournament

            KEENE, N.H. 5/11/10 – Keene State will be the second seed in the Little East Conference baseball tournament that begins Thursday in Mansfield, Conn. Originally scheduled to begin on Wednesday, the six-team, double-elimination tournament hosted by top seed Eastern Conn. was pushed back a day due to projected rain. 

            The Owls (25-13-1), who finished the regular season winning 11 of their last 12 games, will open up against fifth seed UMass-Dartmouth (20-17).

            “Once you get into the tournament anything can happen,” said KSC Coach Ken Howe.  “We like the position we’re in.  Now we just have to go out and keep competing like we’ve done the last two and a half weeks.”

            A strong-hitting team led by juniors Bobby Doyon (10 HRs-47 RBIs-.428 AVG), Tyler DiPrato (2-21-.398), and seniors Anthony Cipolla (31 RBIs, .390 Avg.) and Keith Patnode (6-35-.368), the Owls’ pitching has also come around of late.   Senior Jeff Raymond (2-3, 4.60 ERA), junior Dan Nelson (5-0, 5.54) and sophomore Jeff Pelkey (2-2, 7.24) have given the team solid starts while junior Corey Vogt (1-1, 1.19) and sophomore Dan Wogksch (2-0, 5.06 ) have shined coming out of the bullpen.

            “I feel good about our pitching,” said Howe.  “We’ve had some quality starts of late, guys going deeper in games and the relievers were bringing in are doing what we expect them to do.”

            Keene State, which shared the LEC regular season championship with ECSU, is looking for its second tournament title.  They won the crown in 2008.

            The winner of the LEC tournament receives the conferences’ automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament.

2010 Little East Conference Baseball Tournament

Hosted by Eastern Conn. State Univ. at Mansfield, Conn.

 Seeds:  1. Eastern Conn. (28-11); 2. Keene State College (25-13-1); 3. Rhode Island

College (21-16); 4. Massachusetts Boston (24-15); 5. Massachusetts

Dartmouth (20-17); 6. U. of Southern Maine (19-19-1).

Thursday, May 13

Game 1:. Eastern Conn. vs. U. of Southern Maine, 10 a.m.

Game 2: Keene State College vs. Massachusetts Dartmouth, 1:15 p.m.

Game 3: Rhode Island College vs. Massachusetts Boston, 4:30 p.m.

Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 7:45 p.m.

Friday, May 14

Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Loser Game 3, 10 a.m.

Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3, 1:15 p.m.

Game 7: TBA, 4:30 p.m.

Game 8: TBA, 7:45 p.m.

Saturday, May 15

Game 9: TBA, 11 a.m.

Game 10: TBA, 2;15 p.m.

Sunday, May 16

Game 11 (if necessary): 11 a.m.