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GRANVILLE, Ohio – Sunday afternoon marked the end of the 2014 season for the Kenyon College softball team, but the Ladies did not go down without a fight against rival Denison University. The Ladies and Big Red battled through nine innings as Denison walked off with a 4-3 victory, but Kenyon rallied and used one big inning to jump out to a 7-1 win in season finale. With the split, the Ladies finish the campaign with an overall record of 22-16 and a 7-9 North Coast Athletic Conference ledger.
Kenyon finished the year on a high note, using its potent offense to bang out five runs in the top of the second inning. Freshman Sylvie Thomas started the one-out rally with the first of three base hits in the game .With the bases loaded, Hayley Howard belted a double into the left center field gap, scoring two. Toni Miller was pegged at the plate to prevent it from being a base-clearing, extra-base hit. Liz Paterra followed up with the second of four run-scoring hits in the inning.
Jane Ghublikian banged out an RBI single up the middle and was followed by Lindsey Susolik's run-scoring single. After the barrage of base hits, the Ladies found themselves up 5-0, which served as more than enough support for Thomas.
Aside from an unearned run allowed as a product of two errors in the first inning, Thomas (9-7) was near-flawless in what was her best start in conference play this season. She sat down the Big Red lineup in order three times and only allowed one runner past first base from the second inning, on. Thomas went all seven innings and surrendered just four hits.
Kenyon added two more runs in the sixth inning when Susolik and Chelsea Delaney knocked out back-to-back two-baggers, each scoring one run.
Game one served as a mini-marathon between the two rivals, taking nine innings to find a winner. The Ladies erased a two-run deficit in the seventh inning when Ghublikian raked a home run over the left field fence to tie the game, 3-3. Rebecca Dyer struck out the first two batters she faced in the inning, but walked Maddy Stark to put Ghublikian in the box.
Both teams were unable to push a run across the plate in the eighth but in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Lee ended the game with a walk-off singled that scored the game-winning run. After Kerry Hager and Gretchen Staubach singled in succession with one out, Stark (13-9) induced a fly out to right that was not deep enough to score a run. Down to their final batter, Lee plucked a single into right center field to bring a close to a game nearing two hours in length.
Stark closed out her junior season with the loss, allowing four runs and 14 hits over her 8.2 innings of work. She struck out six hitters over the contest, which helped her break the College single-season strikeout record for the second straight year. Following Sunday's game, Stark now stands atop the list with 126 strikeouts accumulated this season. Last year, Stark broke a 14-year-old record with 121 strikeouts, breaking Denise Darlage's mark of 110.
