Kenyon sweeps home-opening games with Bluffton

GAMBIER, Ohio — The Kenyon College baseball team used steady pitching and timely hitting Tuesday to chalk up a pair of wins in a home-opening doubleheader against the Bluffton University Beavers. The Lords took a seven-inning game-one 5-2 win and followed it up with a nine-inning game-two 6-3 victory.

After Bluffton broke out to a 2-0 lead in game one, the Lords answered with a four-spot in the bottom of the second inning. Andrew Rabinowitz and Luke Meister both singled and Tripper Capps was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Will Sturgeon then singled home the Lords’ first run. Drew Robinson was then hit by a pitch to push the second run across. An Alexander Hosksins’ RBI groundout gave Kenoyn the lead and a sacrifice fly from Malcolm Gaynor extended the Lords’ advantage to 4-2.

The only other run scored in game one came in the bottom of the fifth. Alex Gow ripped a two-out double and came around to score on a Rabinowitz single. Rabinowitz finished game one 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI. Robinson also finished with a run scored and an RBI.

Gow, Kenyon’s starting pitcher, yielded the two runs to Bluffton in the top of the second. After that, reliever Liam Rosengren went three scoreless innings and Edwin Groff went two scoreless to earn the save.

In game two, the Beavers again took an early lead, scoring in the third inning off Kenyon starter Frank Lynch. Bluffton starter Andrew Collinsworth kept the Kenyon bats quiet for five innings.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Lords finally broke through, getting to Collinsworth for a pair of runs, which both crossed the plate on Robinson’s bloop single to right field. That chased Collinsworth from the game.

In the seventh, Bluffton sent Jacob Daulton and Nathan Young in as relievers and the Lords blitzed them with four more runs to take a 6-1 lead. In that outburst, run-scoring hits were cranked out by Gow, Meister, Capps and Nate Rosen.

Joel Biery, who made a relief appearance in the fourth inning, pitched for two-and-a-third innings to pick up the win. He faced eight batters and struck out four. He hit one and walked one, but did not give up a hit.

Bluffton got two in the top of the sixth to make things a little more interesting, but Hopper Rowe closed out the game and earned his first save for the Lords.

Gow went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI in game two and finished the doubleheader 4-for-8 with three runs scored, an RBI and two stolen bases. Meister was 2-for-3 in game two and 3-for-6 with two runs, an RBI and a stolen base on the day.

Kenyon, now 10-6, will get right back at it tomorrow with a single nine-inning home game against Muskingum University.