GAMBIER, Ohio -- The Kenyon College softball team took the first game of a twin bill against the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg in dramatic fashion, coming back in extra innings and winning on a Keala Montgomery walk-off. The Owls had to settle for a split in the non-conference doubleheader, but the exciting victory put Kenyon back in the win column and helped the Owls match last season's win total (15) with 10 games still on the schedule.

Kenyon (15-10) started the day's scoring when first-year Leah Kuban clobbered her season's first home run, putting the home team ahead 1-0 in the second inning. Kuban's missile marked the only scoring for most of the game as both pitchers played well. Kylie Hamm held Pitt.-Greensburg scoreless through 4.2 innings, but the Bobcats got on the board in the fifth frame after a wild pitch and an RBI single.

The Owls immediately bounced back, however, as Kuban stayed hot. The left fielder led off the inning with a triple, giving her seven total bases on just two swings. Kinsey White drove the run in, reinstating Kenyon's one-run lead at 2-1.

Still, the back-and-forth scoring continued as the Bobcats knotted the score again in the ensuing half-inning thanks to an unearned run. After a scoreless seventh, the teams needed an extra inning to decide a winner. A wild pitch and a ball in the infield brought the automatic runner around to score from second without an out, but Allison McCutchen came on and prevented further damage after a strikeout and an inning-ending double play.

Facing a 3-2 deficit, Lindsey George started the comeback bid by getting on base after getting hit by a pitch, putting the winning run on first with White on second. After Brooke Avile did a job and moved both runners over with a sacrifice bunt, Montgomery mashed a ball to the left side that drove in both baserunners, winning the game for Kenyon, 4-3.

McCutchen improved to 4-0 after the win, while Hamm had a stellar seven-inning start that included six strikeouts and just one earned run. Montgomery's multi-RBI game marked her fifth such outing of the season. Her big hit, her first of the game, propelled the sophomore to a strong game-two performance.

Montgomery went 2-for-4 at the plate and scored the team's first run, but the Owls were in an early 4-0 hole before then. The Bobcats struck first with a home run before some poor defense helped Pitt.-Greensburg to pin three unearned runs on Amanda Harris's third-inning ledger.

Kenyon bounced back with a three-run bottom of the third that saw Arianna Jalomo, Maeve McLaughlin, and Lily Colvin compile RBI hits. However, 4-3 is as close as the Owls would come in game two, and Pitt.-Greensburg tacked on two sixth-inning runs that marked an end to the scoring as the visitors held on to win 6-3.

Along with Montgomery, Natalya Delsante and Colvin each had two hits in game two. With a game-two triple, Montgomery broke the program's single-season record for triples, as her sixth three-bagger surpassed Grace Finn's five triples in 2019.

Three Kenyon pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts, including six from Harris, and the Owls offense outhit the Bobcats 11-6, but timely hitting and Kenyon miscues helped the visitors secure the split. 

The doubleheader marked the first of four twin bills over a busy week for the Owls, who will next head to Oberlin College on Wednesday, April 23. Kenyon also has a matchup at Ohio Wesleyan University on deck for Saturday, April 26, before they are set to welcome The College of Wooster to Gambier on Sunday, April 27.