Junior Jon White earned his team-leading fifth win with a solid nine strikeout performance against Keene State

FP
Handles Keene State, 11-1
Close belts two homers and White quiets Owls bats to lead Ravens

RINDGE, N.H. (April 10, 2002) - Franklin Pierce University
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 FPC. He yielded just one earned run, scattering six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Close smacked two homeruns and recorded two stolen bases and four RBIs to lead the Ravens

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, FP
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
FPC	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
FPC: Jon White, Greg Basile (9th) and Eric Cavers, Al Medeiros (8th)

WP: White (5-2)
LP: Austin (1-2)
HR: Close 2 (7).

FP
(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.