GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Kenyon College baseball team battled No. 8-ranked Denison University throughout Tuesday's North Coast Athletic Conference doubleheader, but the host Big Red overcame two-run deficits in both games and swept the Lords by scores of 7-4 and 12-9.
Sophomore
Patrick Craig, Kenyon's game-one starting pitcher, set the tone early. He pitched six innings and gave up just two runs on two hits and five walks. He also struck out six and got the run support he deserved in the top of the fifth.
Trailing by just two, the Kenyon lineup went to work, sending all nine batters to the plate and scoring four times on five hits.
Ryan Page,
Alex Gow and
Matt Contreras each doubled in the inning. Page scored on Gow's double and Gow scored on Contreras'.
Andrew Rabinowitz then singled. He and Contreras later came home on
Brent Henderson's single that gave the Lords a 4-2 lead and chased Denison starter Will McManaman from the game.
In the seventh inning, things went south for the Lords as the Big Red tagged reliever
Ross Scheinberg for five runs. The back-breaker was a three-run homer from Brian McAuliffe.
Denison relievers John Troll and Mikey Rivera held off the Lords for the rest of the way. Troll pitched the seventh and eighth innings to get the win. Rivera finished off the final two frames and picked up the save.
Game two was a little more back-and-forth, but, again, Kenyon managed to construct a two-run lead in the top of the fifth. Denison tallied three in the bottom of the first. Kenyon came back with two in the top of the second. Denison then put up a four-spot in the third and Kenyon came back with its' own four-run outburst in the fourth. Key hits from
Eric DelRosso and Page in the fifth pushed the Lords out to a 9-7 advantage.
The Big Red bounced right back and scored four in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead for good.
The Lords used six pitchers in game two, starting with
Patrick O'Leary, but only
Nathan Chandler, who threw one scoreless inning, was able to hold down the Big Red bats.
In the two games combined, Kenyon out-hit Denison 25-20. Rabinowitz was the leader for the Lords. He racked up six hits in nine at-bats. He scored three times and had one RBI. DelRosso was a combined 4-for-9 with two runs and three RBI. Contreras was 4-for-10 and Page was 3-for-10.
The losses dropped Kenyon to 18-11 overall and 5-5 in NCAC play. The wins moved Denison to 26-2 overall and 10-0 in the NCAC.
