LACONIA — Playing in its first game of the tournament, the Keene All Stars pounded out 15 hits and used a five-run sixth inning outburst to break open a close contest Sunday night.

Keene (1-0), which received a first-round bye, ran past the Armand J. Laramie All-Stars 9-2 at the Robbie Mills Memorial Sports Complex. Keene advanced to play Manchester (2-0) in the winners' bracket final on Wednesday. Laconia dropped to 1-1 and will try to keep its tournament hopes alive tonight against Great Bay North.

After falling behind 2-0 early in the contest, Laconia rallied to tie the score in the bottom of the third. Austin Kerns led off the frame with a base hit and was pushed to second on a sacrifice bunt by Brandon Krueger. Jon Woodbury followed with a double that easily scored Kerns and then Woodbury came around with the equalizer on a Graham Nyhan double.

"We were looking for simple innings," explained Laconia head coach Jeff Greeley. "We were doing that early in this game but then the wheels came off. We can't afford costly mistakes but I thought one of the biggest things today was that we did not get the timely hitting that we got yesterday."

Keene scored a run in the top of the first on a run-producing single by Jerod Segal and added another in its half of the third when Nic Landry plated Jeremy Ball with a base hit.

Laconia seemed to swing the momentum back in its favor in the third, but Keene grabbed it right back in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of a wild pitch and a throwing error to set up the go-ahead run. Ball and Keagan Peloquin each had run-scoring singles in the frame.

Keene Starting pitcher Will Kitterman did not allow another run in his next three innings of work. The curve balling Kitterman finished with seven strikeouts and only walked one batter. Dylan Ball pitched a scoreless seventh for the winners.

"It was a solid baseball game on both sides," said Keene manager Tony Neary. "We had everyone in our lineup hitting the ball and we were running the bases hard. I also thought that we made good plays in the field and got a fantastic pitching performance from both Will and Dylan. Even when the game was close we had confidence because of our play in the field and the way we were able to minimize their offensive opportunities."

Keene cemented the win with five runs in the seventh inning. Ball, Peloquin and Lucas Luopa all had RBI hits in the frame.

Laconia was led by Woodbury and Nyhan, who each had two doubles and an RBI. Steve Lavasseur had a hit and a stolen base in three trips to the plate.

"We came in kind of doubting ourselves because Keene won the 13-year-old states last year," said Woodbury. "We competed today but made some errors that hurt us. Our batting order is producing so I feel we can still be competitive in this tournament and get back into it."

Luopa, Neary and Peloquin all had three hits to aid in the winning cause. Ball scored three runs and had a pair of RBI's. Austin reached base four times (hit, three walks) and had two stolen bases.

"Their pitcher kept our hitters off balanced today," added Greeley. "I am still proud of the way we have been battling in this tourney and for 14 year olds to have that mind set is great. We will have to go back to making opposing pitchers work harder and I believe we can get ourselves back into contention."

KEENE, 9-2

KEENE (1-0) 101 200 5 — 9 15 1

LACONIA (1-1) 002 000 0 — 2 7 2

BATTERIES: K-Will Kitterman, Dylan Ball (7) and Jerod Segal. L-Steven Lavasseur and Wesley Ward. WP- Kitterman. LP-Lavasseur.