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Box Score 2
GAMBIER, Ohio – Hits came at a premium for the Kenyon College softball team in its pair of losses to Ohio Wesleyan University. The Battling Bishops were able to stymie the Ladies' bats in both games of Saturday's doubleheader, defeating Kenyon by counts of 8-0 and 13-5. The sweep helped the Bishops jump ahead of the Ladies in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings and pits them with an overall record of 17-11 and a conference ledger of 2-6.
Game one looked to be a pitcher's duel through four innings as OWU (14-12, 4-4 NCAC) held just a 1-0 lead at the midway point. Chelsea Denman doubled that lead with an RBI single then came around to score on Sarah Flint's run-scoring triple shortly after.
The game got away from Kenyon when Bishops' freshman Taylor Dickson was called upon to pinch hit with the bases loaded. With a 0-2 count and after fighting off four foul balls, she launched her first collegiate home run over the left field fence off of Maddy Stark (9-6) to clear the bases and send Ohio Wesleyan toward a 7-0 lead. They added one more run in the seventh before Dani Haley finished what she had started and earned third complete-game shutout of the season. She struck out nine Ladies and allowed just three hits.
Kenyon mustered just three hits through game one and it did not get any easier in the capper to the doubleheader. In game two, they had matched that through the first four innings and were only able to plate one run. Meanwhile, Ohio Wesleyan's bats exploded for 12 runs. Not until the fifth inning when the Bishops went to the bullpen did Kenyon double up that hit total.
The Bishops teed off against Sylvie Thomas (8-6), tallying 14 hits off of the freshman in her four innings of work. Ohio Wesleyan put up two runs in three of the first four innings with that streak only being interrupted by a six-run third inning. Erica Bryan and Lilly Gresh each had three hits in game two while Brooke Warner and Denman both had three ribbies.
With the game well in hand, Ohio Wesleyan took out its starter, Sarah Flint, where Kenyon then started showing signs of life offensively. They scratched together three hits and took advantage of two walks, a hit batsman, and a fielding error to put together four runs. Two of Kenyon's runs were scored when either hit by a pitch or walked with the bases loaded. Danielle Elizarraraz and Lindsay Susolik accounted for the remainder of the Ladies' runs in the inning.
Haley returned to the circle to put the Ladies down in order in the sixth inning, prompting an early conclusion with an eight-run lead after six innings.
Jane Ghublikian had one hit in each game, extending her current hitting streak to nine games. After going hitless in game one, Susolik rebounded by going 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI.
The Ladies will have a quick turnaround and head to Hiram College for two games on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.
