GAMBIER, OH – In Saturday's home-opening doubleheader at renovated McCloskey Field, the Kenyon College Lords split a non-conference doubleheader with the Westminster College Titans. The visiting Titans doubled-up Kenyon in game one, 4-2, but the Lords responded with a lopsided 11-0 game-two win.
Kenyon took over game two during second-inning play, scoring eight times on five hits and two Westminster errors.
Patrick O'Leary started things off with a walk.
Will Sturgeon then singled and
Jimmy Clark doubled down the right field line to score O'Leary.
Trenton DiFilippo walked to load the bases and
Andrew Rabinowitz doubled to right center, scoring two more.
After a Westminster pitching change, the Lords benefited from two Titan errors.
Ryan Page tacked on a double and so did O'Leary, who plated another two Kenyon runs.
The Lords added a single run in the fourth and two more in the fifth. In the fourth, it was a single from Sturgeon that scored
Matt Contreras. In the fifth,
Paul Siciliano smashed a solo home run to left field. Page then doubled again and later scored on a double from
Jake Brown.
When the Kenyon offense wasn't racking up runs, freshman starting pitcher
Zach Elsawy was preventing the Titans from scoring. Elsawy threw five scoreless innings to get the win and improve to 2-0 on the season. He gave up six hits and three walks, while striking out five.
Will Allen and
Joel Biery each added an inning of relief for the Lords and kept the Titans off the board.
Both Page and Sturgeon finished 2-for-3. In all, the Lords had 11 hits in game two.
In game one, Kenyon starting pitcher
Patrick Craig struck out the Westminster side in the first before the Lords moved ahead, 1-0, on O'Leary's one-out single through the left side that plated Contreras.
The next inning, the Titans took a 2-1 lead. Frank Cinicola singled and Hunter Alexander drew a walk. James Diamond then connected on an RBI single that pushed Cinicola across the plate. The 1-1 score then tilted in the visitor's favor as Matt Buck's grounder to short allowed Alexander to score.
Following a scoreless third, Westminster added its third run as Cinicola reached base on an error and was later driven in on a fielder's choice.
Down 3-1, Kenyon pulled to within one in the fifth inning.
Alex Gow registered his team-leading 22nd RBI of the season with a two-bagger down the left field line that scored Sturgeon. The Lords still had two on base after that, but Westminster pitcher Dante Parente got a groundout and strikeout to end the inning.
In the final frame, down 4-2, Kenyon had O'Leary and Siciliano on base, but a fly out to right field ended the Lords' comeback hopes.
Craig pitched all seven innings. He allowed just six hits and a walk, while striking out eight.
Contreras was 3-for-4 in game one and
Eric DelRosso was 2-for-4.
Kenyon is now 12-6 and will return to McCloskey Field Sunday for a single nine-inning game against Capital University at 1 p.m.
