MEADVILLE, Pa. – With three losses already chalked up in the four-game weekend series with Allegheny College, the Kenyon College baseball team got a huge boost from senior Kyle Hardacker, who belted an extra-inning gram slam that gave the Lords an 11-7 win in Sunday's second game of a conference doubleheader. Allegheny took the opener 9-4 and won the overall series, 3-1.

With the score tied 6-6 in the top of the 11th inning of game two, Kenyon sophomore Casey Rosenfeld drew a walk. Matt Von Roemer then singled and both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Jake Dunn, who is hitting .465 this season, was intentionally walked to load the bases. Hardacker, who has protected Dunn in the Lords' lineup for most of the season, came to the plate and crushed a homer to left center. Phillip Nam followed with a solo shot for Kenyon and Spencer Byers, who pitched three-and-a-third innings of relief picked up the win.

The home runs were the third of the season for both Hardacker and Nam, who are locked in a battle for the team lead in RBI. Nam currently has a team-best 37, but Hardacker is a close second with 35. That output from Hardacker gives him 128 RBI for his career, a total that's just five behind Kenyon record holder Nate Lotze, who graduated last season with 133 career RBI.

Prior to the late dramatics, Kenyon got off to a hot start at the plate thanks to Von Roemer, who had an RBI single in the first and a two-run single in the second. He was 4-for-6 with a run scored and four RBI. Dunn was 3-for-5 including a solo homer in the seventh inning. Jono Chafe had a three-hit game and both Max Heldman and Rosenfeld contributed two hits for the Lords, who finished the night cap with 18 hits, including seven that went for extra bases.

The bats weren't as productive in game one as the Lords scored all four of their runs in one inning. In the sixth, trailing 7-0, the Lords got solo home runs from Heldman and Dunn. A hit-by-pitch, followed by a couple of singles and an error brought home the final two Kenyon runs.

The Lords (21-15, 7-9 NCAC East) entered the doubleheader with just nine home runs on the season, but managed to rip five of them Sunday against Allegheny (21-13, 12-4 NCAC East). Heldman, Dunn, and John Nahra all had two hits in game one. Nahra is heating up at the right time for Kenyon and has managed to raise his batting average from .200 to .263 over the last week.

On the mound, senior starter Tim Krahn took the loss and fell to 5-3. He gave up a dozen hits and nine runs, but thanks to two Kenyon errors, only four of those Allegheny runs were earned. In a little more than five innings of work, Krahn walked two and struck out one.

The Lords now have a make-up game with Capital University on tap. That contest is Wednesday and will be used in preparation for the NCAC Crossover weekend, which starts Saturday, May 2 and determines which conference teams will move on to the NCAC's four-team postseason tournament.