Moosic, PA – Keystone College used a four-run sixth inning to break open a game on Wednesday night on their way to an 8-0 victory over Franklin & Marshall College in the first round of the NCAA Baseball Regionals at PNC Field.  The second-seeded Giants, who are currently ranked 11^th in the country, improve to 34-8 on the season and will take on Ramapo College at 7:45 p.m. on Thursday evening in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination tournament.  
 
The Diplomats, who earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals after winning the Centennial Conference championship, fall to 23-20 on the spring and will meet Misericordia University at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday in an elimination contest.
 
In a game originally scheduled for 7:45 p.m. that got pushed back to a 9:30 start due to weather delays throughout Wednesday's earlier game's, F&M's Aaron Gillette led off the final game of the firs with a walk and after Keystone starting pitcher Rob Rogers (Islip, NY/Islip) struck out the next batter, catcher Gabriel Ramirez (San Juan, Puerto Rico/Perkiomen School) threw out Gillette trying to steal second before Rogers got a comebacker to end the inning.
 
Austin Straub (Manlius, NY/Fayetteville-Manlius) looped a one-out single to center in the Keystone first before Tyler Gurman (Bronx, NY/Lehman) singled through the left side to put runners on first and second.  Ramirez then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center that advanced Catherina to put runners on the corners, but Diplomats starter Brendan Demond got an inning-ending flyout to center to end the Giants' threat.
 
Miquel Castano (Miami, FL/Miami Springs) led off the bottom of the third inning with a single to center before stealing second base to put a runner in scoring position with nobody out.  Kevin Catherina (Ridgefield, NJ/St. Mary (Rutherford)) then sacrificed Castano to third and Castano would then score the game's first run on a wild pitch.
 
Gillette led off the F&M fourth with his second leadoff walk of the day and advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches.  Rogers escaped the jam though by sandwiching a pair of strikeouts around an incredible, over-the-shoulder basket catch by Castano at second base.
 
Pat Andrews hit a one-out single to center in the Diplomats' fifth and advanced to second on a misplay in the Giants' outfield, but Rogers stranded the runner at second with a flyout followed by a groundout.
 
F&M's Alex Vescera hit a two-out double down the right field line in the top of the sixth inning before Rogers got Matt Mezansky to groundout to end the inning before the Giants' used a big bottom half of the inning to take control of the game. 
 
Straub led of the home sixth with a single through the right side and after a strikeout, Ramirez walked and Molina followed with a single to load the bases.  Ricky Riscica (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) then chopped a single into right field that scored Straub and Ramirez to push Keystone's lead to 3-0.  Rick McLaughlin (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) followed with a bunt down the first base line that plated Molina with the Giants' fourth run.  Lymbel Guerrero (Lynn, MA/Lynn Classical) then blasted a double off the top of the fence in left field to score McLaughlin to extend Keystone's advantage to 5-0.
 
Rogers, who entered the evening with 100 strikeouts on the season, tied Angel Oquendo's school record of 103 K's set in the 2002 season in the third inning before breaking the mark with his fourth strikeout of the day in the fourth inning as part of a seven-strikeout performance as the senior allowed just three hits over seven innings on the mound while improving to 9-2 on the season.
 
Michael Meszoros (Bridgeport, CT/Bassick) came on in relief of Rogers in the top of the eighth inning for Keystone and struck out the side.
 
Ramirez hit a double to the right field gap to start the bottom of the eighth inning and was pinch run for by Jose Garcia (Trenton, NJ/Trenton Central), who stole third for his team-leading 19^th swipe of the year before being driven in by Molina to push Keystone's lead to 6-0.  Riscica then laced a double to the gap in left-center to bring in Molina with the Giants' seventh run of the day.  Keystone pushed their lead to 8-0 when McLaughlin hit a single to center that scored Riscica.        
 
Felix Lopez (Brooklyn, NY/Grand Street Campus) worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out the win for the Giants. 
 
DeMond (9-3) suffered the loss after allowing 10 hits over seven-plus innings of work before Gareth Fancher closed out the contest on the hill for the Diplomats.
 
In Wednesday's other games, #4 Alvernia defeated #5 Johns Hopkins 10-5, #1 Kean outslugged #8 Penn State-Harrisburg 12-7, and #6 Ramapo blanked #3 Misericordia, 4-0.
 
Thursday's action will open with an elimination game between Johns Hopkins and Penn State-Harrisburg at 10:00 a.m. before Misericordia and F&M/Keystone square off in the second elimination game of the day at 1:15 p.m.  Alvernia will take on Kean at 4:30 p.m. before Ramapo and F&M/Keystone close out the night at 7:45 p.m. at PNC Field.