KEENE, N.H. — The Castleton baseball team delivered an offensive shellacking, piling on 22 hits to run-rule Keene State, 18-2, in seven innings Tuesday afternoon.
Behind strong defense, a fiery Castleton (14-17, 4-8 LEC) lineup set a season high in both the hit (22) and hit-by-pitch (7) categories. Hunter Perkins was a major catalyst in the phenomenal effort, going 2-for-2 with two RBIs, two runs scored, three HBPs, and two stolen bases. Jackson Cardozo tallied his second consecutive four-hit game in a 4-for-6 performance, adding four RBIs and three runs. Also knocking in four runs was Jack Boyle who collected a pair of hits with two free passes. Kannon Dush and Tyler McLain each logged three hits while Evan Keegan went 2-for-4 with his first blast of the year.
Right-handed pitcher Brayden Howrigan picked up the win in a 5.1-inning start, limiting the Owls (13-20, 3-8 LEC) to one earned run on seven hits and two walks while striking out four. He was relieved by Owen Phelps who held Keene scoreless in the final 1.2 frames, retiring two batters on strikes.
In the opening half-inning, the Spartans went on a dazzling two-out rally kicked off by Keegan's solo shot to left center. Following a single off the bat of Cardozo in which he dashed to third via error, four RBI hits in a row by Perkins, Addison Schaub, Boyle, and Dush contributed to a six-hit, five-run first stanza. The Owls used a one-out single and two-out triple to cut the deficit to four through one complete.
The home side brought another run home in the second frame as Castleton kept a 5-2 lead headed into the fourth. The Spartans batted around as Ryan Lawrence led off with a single, scoring on a Keegan hit. Cardozo and Boyle each tagged a two-RBI single before Dush collected an RBI two-bagger, pushing the lead out to 11-2. The frame nearly repeated itself in the fifth, beginning with a double from Reece de Castro and an RBI knock from McLain. Cardozo singled, Perkins doubled, and Schaub singled to bring three more runs across.
Howrigan breezed through his final full inning, fanning one while stranding a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the fifth. Facing the Owls' fifth pitcher of the day in the sixth, McLain added a double while four of his teammates were plunked. Keene changed pitchers in a two-out, bases-loaded jam, then Boyle wore a pitch for an RBI HBP to make it 17-2.
KSC made multiple lineup changes in the home half as Phelps entered with three aboard and one out. The junior right-hander forced a foul out and a fielder's choice to keep the 15-run margin untouched. New faces also appeared for the Spartans as Tyler Dubreuil and Brandon Ramirez got hits to put runners on the corners. Cardozo, in his sixth at-bat, brought Dubreuil across on a left-side single. In the bottom of the seventh, Phelps found himself in another bases-loaded situation but got the final hitter to whiff, activating the Little East Conference's run rule.
22 base hits tops the previous season high of 21 set at Guilford (2/22) in the second contest of the year. The offensive outburst produced the Spartans' most hits in a game since logging a 24-tally effort against Plattsburgh State on April 14, 2010.
The Spartans travel back to the Green Mountain State to challenge Middlebury tomorrow (April 26). First pitch against the Panthers is at 4 p.m.
