GAMBIER, Ohio – For the second time in as many days, the Ladies softball team split a home doubleheader. Saturday, the Ladies shared wins with No. 22-ranked Case Western Reserve University. Sunday, they returned to the diamond and split two with the Marietta College Pioneers. Kenyon took game one, 7-2, and Marietta claimed game two, 7-5.
The split moved Kenyon's overall record to 14-8 and Marietta's to 8-8.
The Ladies clubbed ten hits in game one and attacked Marietta pitching right from the start. In the bottom of the first inning, the Ladies logged their first run after freshman
Grace Finn laced a one-out single up the middle. Finn then stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.
Marietta moved ahead, 2-1, in the top of the fourth inning, but Kenyon junior
Grace Pilz blasted a solo home run over the left field fence in the bottom half of the inning. It was her first homer of the season and the eighth of her career.
Finn then powered the Ladies' offense back into the lead. She doubled home two runs in a three-run fifth and then doubled again to plate one of two runs in the sixth. In that five-run outburst, Kenyon also got a triple from
Amanda Coyle and a run-scoring double from
Madi Maldonado.
Finn finished the game 4-for-4 with three RBI, three doubles and two runs scored. Pilz and Coyle both contributed two hits.
Keely Sweet, Kenyon's starting pitcher, went the distance, giving up two earned runs on eight hits. She didn't walk a batter and she struck out three to improve to 7-5 on the season.
Marietta starting pitcher Jackie Mulvian didn't make it out of the sixth inning. She took the loss, giving up all seven Kenyon runs on ten hits and a walk.
In game two, the Ladies had a little more difficulty figuring out Marietta hurler Maddi Liston, who held Kenyon hitless until a one-out
Lauren Graf single in the bottom of the fourth.
Despite not hitting early on, the Ladies did score a run in the bottom of the third. Pilz led off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from
Nicole Horita.
Maldonado then ripped a ground ball the Pioneers' shortstop couldn't handle and Pilz came around to score on the error.
While the Ladies' lineup was scuffling, the Pioneers took over the game with a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth. Two doubles, a single and a walk for Marietta chased Coyle, Kenyon's starting pitcher, from the circle.
Austen Whibley relieved Coyle and got the Ladies out of the inning.
Kenyon came back with RBI hits from Coyle and Maldonado in the bottom of the fifth, but Marietta roughed up Whibley for three more runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a 7-3 lead.
Liston nearly finished the Ladies off, but did need a little assistance in the bottom of the seventh. Finn doubled, once again, to pull Kenyon within two runs, but Marietta handed the ball to Hannah Richardson, who closed out the game.
The Ladies were limited to seven hits in game two. Graf and Coyle each had two. Finn had one hit and finished the two-game set 5-for-7 with five RBI, four doubles, two runs scored, a walk and a stolen base. Coyle was a combined 4-for-6 with four runs scored, a triple and a double.
