The SwampBats piled on early for a 10-3 win over their division rival Upper Valley Nighthawks on Friday.

After an hour-long rain delay, the Nighthawks jumped on top with two doubles in the top of the first innings. They threatened for more with runners on second and third and one out but starter Charlie Oschell (Virginia) struck out the next two batters. The SwampBats had runners on the corners in the bottom half but could not get on the board. Oschell was helped by a diving catch from Delaware’s Aaron Graeber in a scoreless top of the second before the SwampBats offense erupted in the bottom half. It started when Maryland’s Alex Calarco drew a one-out walk, but the rest of the rally came with two outs. Austin Hawke (Wake Forest) doubled in Calarco, and then scored on Joe Jaconski’s (Penn State) single up the middle. Cincinnati’s Josh Kross followed with an RBI double, and after Nick Romano (Florida Atlantic) walked, Graeber scored them both with a double off the wall in left-center. Ripken Reese (Kent State) was the sixth consecutive runner to reach base when he singled home Graeber to make it 6-1 SwampBats.

With the wind at their backs, Keene added on in the third with a Jaconski two-run single to make it 8-1. Meanwhile, Oschell settled in for three and two-thirds innings of one-run ball, striking out four. Upper Valley pulled a couple of runs back in the fifth on a walk, a double, an error, and then a double play but Reese made a nice diving stop at first to get Stephen Bangs (Franklin Pierce) through the inning. Jackson Gaspard (Georgia Tech) came up with his best outing of the season as he struck out two through two scoreless frames, allowing the SwampBats to tack onto their lead. They did so in the bottom of the seventh and there was a familiar face responsible. Jaconski drove a ball high and deep to the right field corner, scoring Calarco and Hawke. As he raced around second and headed for third, the relay throw beat him to the bag, but he dove around it according to the umpire for a two-run triple, prompting an angry argument by the frustrated Upper Valley coach. The play gave Jaconski five RBIs for the game. Alex Jankowski (Stony Brook) pitched the final two innings allowing only one walk while striking out two, including the game’s final batter on a called third strike late into the night.

Keene (15-8) maintains the second-best record in the league and hosts the Bristol Blues on Saturday for Hawaiian Shirt Night at Alumni Field.