MEADVILLE, Pa. -- Kenyon College senior Patrick Craig threw his last collegiate pitch Friday. It came in the second game of a doubleheader split and it powered the Kenyon College baseball team to a 5-0 win over the host Allegheny College Gators.
Craig's masterpiece was a response to a 13-4 loss in game one for the Lords, who concluded the 2021 season with an even 7-7 overall record and a 5-7 mark within North Coast Athletic Conference East Division play.
Craig, a southpaw, tossed five innings of game two and allowed just three hits while striking out a pair. He picked up the pitching win, which was his second of the season and the seventh of his career. The combined shutout dropped his season earned run average to 3.30 in 30 innings of work.
In the sixth, junior Zach Elsawy relieved Craig and cruised through a one-two-three inning. He came back out in the seventh, ran into a little bit of trouble, but a double-play ball got him through it and sealed the five-run win for the Lords.
As a team, Kenyon played just 14 games this season, but the pitching staff provided an impressive 3.47 earned run average with 84 strikeouts in 96 innings.
In terms of run support, Craig got all he needed in the second inning, when Will Sturgeon led off with a single and Brent Henderson quickly doubled him home.
A big four-run sixth inning provided plenty of insurance. In that frame, Jake Brown reached base because of an Allegheny error. A double from Andrew Rabinowitz was followed by a Kyle Dwyer single that scored both Brown and Rabinowitz. Sturgeon then drew a walk and that was all for Allegheny starting pitcher Nolan Thompson.
The Lords' bats weren't done, though. Henderson added an RBI single and Ryan Page capped the inning with a bases-loaded walk that pushed Kenyon to its final 5-0 advantage.
In game one, the Lords offense didn't heat up until it was too late. Allegheny starting pitcher Nick Tarasi held the Kenyon offense hitless until the top of the fourth. That's when Henderson registered the Lords' first hit with a single up the middle.
One more Kenyon hit followed in the fifth inning and it wasn't until the sixth that the Lords put some numbers on the scoreboard. With one out in the top of the frame, Sturgeon singled up the middle. Henderson then drew a walk and Rabinowitz followed with a three-run bomb over the left field fence. The homer was his team-leading third of the season and the three RBI gave him a team-best total of 13.
In the other dugout, the Gators (15-10, 7-5 NCAC) didn't take any time to warm up. They posted two runs in the second inning and another in the third off of Kenyon starter Sam Richards. Things unraveled further in the fourth, as the Gators chased Richards from the mound by utilizing one error and piling up four hits and a walk. In all, Alleghney scored nine runs, seven earned, against Richards, who was replaced by Joel Biery.
Biery worked in and out of the jam in the fourth and then was relieved by Jake Davisdson, who yielded four more runs over the next two innings. The Kenyon defense, which racked up five errors in the game, was responsible for four unearned runs.
Kenyon inched one run closer in the seventh, after capitalizing on an Allegheny error. Jimmy Clark led off the inning with a single to right field. Brown got on due to the error, which moved Clark to third. A Page groundout got Clark to the plate, scoring the game's final run.
In both games combined, Henderson, Rabinowitz and Dwyer had three hits.Sturgeon had two hits and scored three runs.
