GORHAM – Matt Powers singled home the tying and go-ahead runs in the sixth inning, and Nick Douglass struck out 10 in 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief Thursday as the University of Southern Maine stayed alive in the Little East Conference baseball tournament with a 5-2 victory against UMass-Boston.

The top-seeded Huskies (24-17) trailed 2-0 going to the sixth, when Tucker White and Nick Grady opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Brett Barrett was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs, and an error on Matt Verrier’s grounder allowed a run to score. Powers then put USM ahead with his base hit.

White started another rally with a leadoff double in the seventh. Forrest Chadwick was intentionally walked with one out, and John Carey drew a walk to load the bases for Barrett, who delivered a two-run single.

Ben Ives started for USM, and gave up RBI singles by Collin Keefer and Dominic Morbidelli in the second. Douglass relieved Ives with one out in the fifth and allowed just two hits the rest of the way.

SOFTBALL

KEENE STATE 4, ST. JOSEPH’S 2: Nicole Dupuis hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning to give fourth-seeded Keene State (26-10-1) a win over fifth-seeded St. Joseph’s (33-8) on the opening day of the NCAA Division III regional at Amherst, Mass.

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The Monks took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning on a two-run homer by Emily Leverone, her 10th of the season.

But they managed just four hits off Emily Albin as they dropped into the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament.

Keene State took advantage of two errors to tie the game in the bottom of the third against Maddie Kluna. Dupuis hit a sacrifice fly after the first run scored on an error.

Dupuis’ fifth-inning home run came after a leadoff single by Sara Stocklinski.

Kluna allowed six hits, struck out eight and walked three.

Rain early Thursday pushed back the start of the tournament, causing Husson and the University of New England to have their openers moved to today.

Husson (33-11) faces Amherst (34-4), and UNE (26-12) meets SUNY Plattsburgh (31-9).

St. Joseph’s will play an elimination game today against Keuka (22-12), a 4-3 loser to SUNY Cortland.


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