GAMBIER, Ohio – The Denison University baseball team utilized small-ball strategy Sunday, piling up nine singles, three stolen bases and four sacrifices to defeat the host Kenyon College Lords, 6-2, at McCloskey Field. The win completed the season sweep for the Big Red, who defeated the Lords by a 5-3 count in Granville, Ohio four days ago.

Kenyon managed seven hits off Denison pitching, but six of those hits were singles. The Big Red's starting pitcher, John Troll, threw four innings and held the Lords to one run on three hits and three walks. Perley Provost pitched the next four innings and picked up the win after giving up just one more Kenyon run on four hits.

The Lords (11-14, 5-6 NCAC) looked to senior Jesse Bogacz to take control on the mound. He, too, lasted four innings. He was strapped with the loss after yielding three runs on six hits and four walks. Two of those three runs were earned for Bogacz, who also fanned a pair of Big Red batters. 

Denison (22-7, 10-2 NCAC) tallied an unearned run off Bogacz in the top of the first inning and then tacked on one more run in the second to build an early 2-0 lead.

The Lords chipped away at that manageable deficit with a run in the bottom of the third. Paul Siciliano kicked things off for Kenyon with a leadoff walk. After a pop out and a strikeout, Siciliano moved to second on Matt von Roemer's single up the middle. Alex Gow then stepped in and worked the count full against Troll. With both runners in motion, Gow drove another single up the middle to score Siciliano.

The Big Red scored twice more in both the fifth and seventh innings to move ahead 6-1. In the fifth, the two runs were tallied from two singles, a Kenyon error and a couple of sacrifices. In the seventh, Denison used another Kenyon error, along with two doubles, to boost its lead to five runs. Bogacz was responsible for one of those four runs, while the other three were pinned to reliever Will Oakley's stat line, one that included three innings pitched, three runs, three hits, a walk and two strikeouts.

The Lords offense threaten in the bottom of the seventh inning with runners on first and third and only one down, but the Big Red got out of the jam by coaxing a line out and a ground out.

Kenyon threatened again in the eighth and this time got a run out of it. Gow set the stage by reaching first on a fielder's choice. Jake Brown pinch ran for Gow and with two outs, rounded the bases and scored on a Patrick O'Leary double down the left field line.

That would be it for any scoring. Ross Scheinberg and Luke Calcei both tossed an inning of scoreless relief for the Lords, while Mikey Rivera polished things off in the bottom of the ninth for the Big Red.

The top of the Denison batting order did all the damage. The first six batters each had two hits and went a combined 12-for-24. The last three batters in the Big Red order were 0-for-11.

Multi-hit games for Kenyon came from von Roemer and Alex Hoskins, who both went 2-for-4. von Roemer now has 34 hits on the season and 197 for his career. Three more knocks and he'll move into third place on Kenyon's list of all-time hit leaders.