GAMBIER, Ohio -- The Kenyon College and Denison University softball teams went back-and-forth all day long during Sunday's conference doubleheader. Denison rallied late for a 7-6 game-one win, and then Kenyon returned the favor in game two, also logging a 7-6 win.
Although the close games kept fans consistently engaged, the highlight, at least for Kenyon fans, were the results produced from sophomore Leah Kuban's swing. In game one, Kuban launched a two-run home in the first inning. That gave her 10 home runs on the season and established a new Kenyon College single-season mark, breaking the previous record of Lindsey Susolik, who hit nine bombs in the 2015 season.
Kuban was not done there. In game two, she blasted her 11th home run of the season to boost her Kenyon record by one. Kuban's 11 home runs and, now, her 42 RBI lead all players in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) and, pending the outcome of other games this weekend, Kuban should rank around the top five among all NCAA Division III players in both statistical categories. Additionally, Kuban's RBI total goes down in the Kenyon book as another record. The previous single-season record for the Owls was 41, set by Jamie Samuel in 2012.
With eight more games still to play this season, Kuban can start eye-balling the NCAC records of 14 home runs and 50 RBI, set by DePauw University's Emily Timberman just two seasons ago.
After Kuban's game-one dinger, Leah Schlissberg and Maeve McLaughlin added RBI hits to give Kenyon a 4-1 lead after three innings of play. Kuban tacked on an RBI hit in the fifth, but Denison got one right back in the sixth, making the score 5-2 in favor of Kenyon, heading to the seventh and final inning.
At that point, things unraveled for Kenyon and its starting pitcher Kylie Hamm, who had yielded just two runs through six innings. Denison used two singles, a double, and a Kenyon error to pull within 5-4. Hamm then exited the game, but with two runners left on base. Reliever Allison McCutchen replaced Hamm, but the first batter she faced, Madilyn Moffitt, doubled to give the Big Red a 6-5 lead. A few batters later, a sacrifice fly gave Denison a 7-5 advantage.
Kenyon got one run back in the bottom of the seventh inning, thanks to an RBI single from Brooke Avila, but the Owls stranded runners on second and third as Denison escaped with the win.
The Owls flipped the script in game two. Trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Emma Cashell led things off with a walk. Kenyon's next two batters were put out, but Madison Buckwalter got on base via a Denison error. Keala Montgomery then singled to score Cashell. Later, Buckwalter scored on a Big Red passed ball to give Kenyon a 7-6 edge.
McCutchen, who faced just one batter and struck her out to close out the sixth inning, picked up the pitching win. Izzy Akin threw a scoreless seventh inning for Kenyon and collected the save. First-year Becca Boue was the Owls' starting pitcher. She worked one out shy of six innings and gave up six runs on 12 hits. She walked three and struck out four.
At the plate, McLaughlin, who had two hits in game one, added two more in game two and ran her hitting streak to 16 games, tied for the third-longest streak in program history. Kuban also had two hits in game two, including her two-run bomb that gave the Owls a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning. Â
Sunday's results moved Kenyon's record to 15-17 overall and 4-4 in NCAC play. Denison's records moved to 10-16 overall and 3-5 in conference competition.
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