FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Kenyon Ladies (8-2) continued play in Fort Myers, Florida on Saturday and split two games against New Jersey City University and Martin Luther College at CenturyLink Sports Complex. After falling 6-5 to the Gothic Knights, the Ladies came back in a big way and rolled the Knights, 11-4.
GAME ONE
NJCU (1-0) held off a late push from Kenyon (7-2) and prevailed 6-5 on Saturday morning.
Leading up to that point, the Ladies attained a 1-0 advantage right from the get-go as
Britny Patterson drove in
Grace Finn with a single to right field.
A frame later, the Gothic Knights cut into the Kenyon defense with four runs. New Jersey City smacked four straight singles into the outfield and tied the game at 1-1 after Christina Mezey connected. Two batters later, Gisselle Vigil drove in the go-ahead run with another single. NJCU then took a 4-1 lead with a two-run double from Hannah Gavin.
That score remained the same until the Ladies and Gothic Knights each tacked on single runs in the fifth and six frames, bringing the tally to 6-3. NJCU's run in the fifth, which came via Kenyon error, turned out to be crucial.
In the seventh, the Ladies nearly rallied. With two out,
Emily Buckwalter singled to short and freshman
Emily Pater followed with an RBI double to center field.
Grace Pilz then got into the action with a single to right, plating Pater. That would be the last of the scoring, though, for the Ladies as Mezey, the Gothic Knights pitcher induced a groundout.
Patterson led the team with two hits and two RBI while Pater, Pilz and
Nicole Bishay each collected multiple hits.
GAME TWO
Finn was a double away from completing the cycle as the Ladies erupted for 20 hits in the 11-4 victory. The 20-hit mark was one off from tying the single-game record set against Alverno College on March 10, 2017. Additionally, Finn became just the fourth Lady all-time to drive in six RBI as she went 4-for-5 with a triple and a three-run bomb.
Martin Luther had no answer for the Ladies' offense as Kenyon attained a 7-0 lead heading into the home half of the third.
Kenyon went up 3-0 in the first courtesy of run-scoring doubles from Patterson and Bishay. An inning later, Finn smacked a three-run shot to right field pushing the Kenyon advantage to 6-0. Then in the third, Finn drove in
Kassie Rimel.
The Knights did tally four runs in the bottom of the third to make things interesting. Elena Hoffman drove in teammate Audrey Timm for the first run and later, a Ladies infield error allowed two more to score. At that point, the Ladies lead was brought down to three, 7-4.
After a scoreless fourth, Kenyon reasserted itself in the fifth. Pilz started the inning with a solo shot, her third of the year. A few batters later, Finn roped a two-run triple to extended Kenyon's advantage to 10-4. Patterson then connected with a RBI double to close out the team's offensive efforts.
In the circle, Pater moved to 3-0 this season while
Madde Hyland closed out the final three frames by not allowing a hit.
In addition to Finn's performance,
Lauren Graf was outstanding as she went 4-for-5 while
Bella Albrecht, Patterson and Bishay each collected multiple hits.
Tomorrow, the Ladies will face Nazareth College and Alfred State College starting at 9 a.m. in Naples.
