WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
MEADVILLE, Pa. — With Wednesday’s doubleheader split at Allegheny College, the Kenyon College baseball team moved within one more win of securing a spot in postseason play. The Lords won game one against the host Gators, 8-4, but came up a bit short in game two, falling 7-6.
With two games left in the regular season, a doubleheader at The College of Wooster on Saturday, the Lords (23-11, 11-5 NCAC) need to win one to gain a spot in the four-team NCAA postseason tournament. That’s the sure bet. There is another way for the Lords to get in, but it would require leaning on the results of the DePauw University doubleheader at Allegheny, also on Saturday.
The Lords got the job done in game one during the late innings. Trailing 2-0 after four innings and 4-3 after six, the bats started to come around in the seventh. After Nate Rosen and Alex Gow drew back-to-back two-out walks, Andrew Rabinowitz doubled to right center, scoring both runners ahead of him and giving the Lords their first lead at 5-4.
Neither team scored in the eighth, opening the door for the Lords to secure the win in the top of the ninth. They did so by getting Alexander Hoskins aboard via a walk and Malcolm Gaynor on board via an Allegheny error. Rosen then singled to score Hoskins and the next Kenyon batter, Gow, doubled to plate both Gaynor and Rosen.
The three-run lead was enough for Noah Rosenberg, who came on in relief, to gain the pitching win for Kenyon. Rosenberg covered the last four innings of play. He struck out two, walked one, gave up one hit and kept the Gators off the scoreboard while improving his personal record to a perfect 3-0.
At the plate, Rabinowitz was 3-for-4 with two RBI, Gow was 2-for-3 with a run and three RBI, while Rosen went 2-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI. In the fifth inning, Will Sturgeon smacked a solo home run, his second of the season.
In game two, the Kenyon momentum at the plate carried over as the Lords whipped up a four-run first inning. Rabinowitz, Luke Meister and Tripper Capps all had RBI hits to stake Kenyon to a 4-0 early lead.
Allegheny (24-13, 9-7 NCAC) got two runs back in the bottom of the first. The Gators then tied things up with two runs in the fourth and moved ahead in the fifth with two more runs.
In the sixth inning, Hoskins homered to center field to pull the Lords within 6-5, but Allegheny got the run right back in the bottom of the frame to take 7-5 lead.
In the top of the ninth, Kenyon scored an unearned run and had the tying run on second with no outs, but Allegheny reliever Daniel Morgano struck out the side to solidify the doubleheader split.
Over the course of the two games, Rabinowitz was 4-for-8 with a run and three RBI, while Rosen was 3-for-7 with four runs scored and two RBI.
