MEADVILLE, Pa. – Kenyon College freshman Patrick Craig threw seven innings of three-hit baseball Wednesday, steering the Lords baseball team to a 6-1 victory in the second game of a conference doubleheader at Allegheny College. The win salvaged a split with the host Gators, who claimed game one, 11-0.

Craig, a southpaw, took the ball in the pressure-filled start and consistently kept the Allegheny batters off balance. He yielded just one earned run in the second inning. He walked two, struck out two and the three hits he gave up were all singles. He dialed up a dozen groundouts and seven fly outs.

The victory bumped Craig's pitching record to 3-2 this season and lowered his earned run average (ERA) to a team-best 2.94. Over his last 14 innings pitched, Craig is 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA and nine strikeouts.

The clutch performance kept the Lords in the hunt for one of four spots in next week's North Coast Athletic Conference postseason tournament. Kenyon now has a 15-15 overall record and a 9-7 NCAC mark, which is good for fourth place.

After Craig exited the game, the Lords continued to get solid pitching from senior Jess Bogacz, who finished off the final two innings without giving up a hit. He struck out three, didn't allow a walk and the only Allegheny runner to reach base against him got on because of a Kenyon error.

Run support for the Kenyon hurlers came early, as the Lords used two walks, two hits and an Allegheny error to chalk up four runs in the first inning. The first two Kenyon runs scored on an error and then a wild pitch. After that, sophomore Patrick O'Leary singled to centerfield to score senior Matt von Roemer. Two batters later, Max Warren, another senior, smacked a sacrifice fly that plated freshman Alex Gow.

Kenyon's other two runs were scored on an Allegheny wild pitch in the third inning and an error in the eighth. The Lords had just six hits in game two, but managed to score six times.

Back in game one, the Kenyon team got off to a rocky start with a defensive error on the very first Allegheny ball put in play. The Lords then got two quick outs, but the Gators rattled off six consecutive singles and rolled to a 6-0 lead after one inning against Kenyon starter Ross Scheinberg.

The Gators (16-20, 7-9 NCAC) continued swinging it in the second inning, tagging Scheinberg for three more hits and two more runs. Although Scheinberg yielded just two earned runs, he was forced from the mound in the middle of the second inning.

Sophomore Will Allen took over pitching duties and was able to bring a halt to the Allegheny momentum. Allen finished off the second inning and worked through the fifth. In that time, he struck out three and gave up just one earned run on four hits and a walk.

Meanwhile, Allegheny starter Nate Pastorek held Kenyon bats in check. He covered eight scoreless innings and struck out eight. He walked three and gave up six hits to improve to 2-1 on the season. Pastorek didn't need any more run support, but the Gators gave him one more in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

For Kenyon, leadoff man and senior Mikey Arman amassed three hits in game one, while O'Leary had a pair. Throughout the doubleheader, Arman was 4-for-9 with a run scored. O'Leary was 4-for-8 with an RBI and Paul Siciliano chipped in with a 3-for-7 showing.

Kenyon now looks ahead to Saturday and its final regular-season doubleheader, which will be at The College of Wooster, the No. 1-ranked team in NCAA Division III.