Close belts two homers and White
quiets Owls bats to lead Ravens
RINDGE, N.H. (April 10,
2002) - Franklin Pierce jumped out to an early lead
and got a solid pitching performance to post an 11-1 victory over
Keene State College in non-conference baseball action at Crystal
Field this afternoon.
Junior right-hander Jon
White (Medford, Mass./Arlington Catholic) picked up
his team-leading fifth win (5-2) of the season as he pitched eight
solid innings on the mound for Franklin Pierce. He yielded just one
earned run, scattering six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.
Junior centerfielder
Dan Close (Leominster, Mass./Leominster)
sparked the Franklin Pierce offense as he hit two-for-four with a
pair of homeruns, two stolen bases and four RBIs.
Close smacked a two-run homer in
the bottom of the first inning to kick-start the Ravens offense.
Freshman Eric Cavers (Otisfield, Maine/Oxford
Hills) followed with a single and later scored on a
Dante Blancarte (Amesbury,
Mass./Amesbury) single up the middle.
The Ravens added a run in the
second inning when a Cavers pop-up with the bases loaded was ruled
an infield fly, but Keene State failed to catch the ball which
allowed Eric Burney (Rockville,
Conn./Rockville) to score.
Keene State got its lone run of the
game in the third inning as junior Nick Bujeaud (Lincoln,
N.H./Lin-Wood) singled to drive in freshman Matt Orszulak.
After scoring a single run in the
fourth inning, Franklin Pierce broke the game open with a pair of
runs in the fifth as freshman Mike MacSwain (Stoughton,
Mass./Coyle Cassidy) singled in Cavers. MacSwain
later scored on a double by classmate Bear Dunn
(Charlton, Mass./Shepherd Hill).
The Ravens tacked on three more in
the sixth frame as Close belted another two-run homer and Cavers
scored on a single through the right side by Blancarte.
In addition to Close's efforts,
senior Scott Loiseau (Worcester, Mass./St. Peter
Marian) had a solid game for the Ravens as he hit 3-4
with a run scored to extend his current hitting streak to 12 games.
Blancarte's 3-5 game at the plate with a double, a stolen base and
three RBIs saw his current hitting streak extend to 13 games, while
Cavers finished 3-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI.
Burney and MacSwain chipped in with two hits apiece.
Freshman Patrick Austin suffered
the loss (1-2) as he was touched for seven runs, six earned, on 11
hits with two strikeouts and two walks in 4.1 innings of work.
Bujeaud led Keene State with a 3-4
effort at the plate with an RBI, while Orszulak was the only other
Owl with multiple hits as he was 2-4 with stolen base and a run
scored.
| Teams
| 1
| 2
| 3
| 4
| 5
| 6
| 7
| 8
| 9
| R
| H
| E
|
| KSC
| 0
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 1
| 7
| 2
|
| FP
| 3
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 2
| 3
| 0
| 1
| x
| 11
| 16
| 1
|
Battery:
KSC: Patrick Austin, Lance Brunelle (5th), Brian
St. George (7th) amd Brendan McNamara
FP: Jon White, Greg Basile (9th) and Eric Cavers,
Al Medeiros (8th)
WP: White
(5-2)
LP: Austin (1-2)
HR: Close 2 (7).
Franklin Pierce (12-10, 6-4 NE-10)
returns to action on Friday afternoon when it travels to
Smithfield, R.I., to kick-off a key four-game weekend series with
Bryant College at 3:30 p.m. The two clubs will play a doubleheader
at Crystal Field on Saturday at noon, before wrapping up the series
with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m. Keene State (12-10, 3-2
Little East) hosts Mass College of Liberal Arts on Thursday at 3
p.m.
