GAMBIER – The Kenyon College baseball team ran its winning streak to a program-best 12 games with a doubleheader sweep of Wabash College on Sunday.
The Lords took the first game 5-1 behind Alex Gow’s second complete game of the season. In Game 2, Kenyon erased an early 2-0 deficit to win 10-4.
The Lords started the scoring early in Game 1, loading the bases in the bottom of the first with one out. Luke Meister grounded one to the pitcher, who secured the force out at home, but the bases remained loaded. On the next pitch, Tripper Capps forced in a run by getting hit by a pitch. With Kenyon up 1-0, starter Alex Gow went back to work on the mound after throwing a scoreless first.
Kenyon tacked on two more in the bottom of the fifth on Meister’s RBI single and Capps’ sacrifice fly to score Andrew Rabinowitz. Back-to-back doubles by Gow and Rabinowitz to lead off the seventh inning gave the Lords a 4-0 advantage with Gow still cruising on the mound.
With nine strikeouts through seven innings, Gow went out to the mound for the eighth inning. Wabash ended the shutout by lifting a sacrifice fly to score a run from third. After breaking the shutout, the Little Giants’ AJ Reid lined a single to put runners on the corners . Reid followed his hit with a stolen base, but that would be all Wabash could muster in the eighth as Gow struck out Liam Patton to retire the side. The Lords added a run in the bottom half on an error, pushing the score to 5-1.
Gow went back out to the mound for the ninth inning and struck out the first batter before giving up a single. The senior responded by striking out the next two Little Giants’ hitters, running his strikeout count to 13. At the end of the day, Gow scattered six hits, walking one on the day while giving up one earned run. The performance raised Gow’s 2022 record to 5-1, with 60 strikeouts and eight walks in 35 innings and a microscopic ERA of 0.77
In the second game, after a scoreless first inning, Wabash found success off of Lords' pitcher Frank Lynch, scoring a pair with two outs. The Lords went quietly in the home half of the second.
Lynch settled back in in the third inning, sitting the Wabash side down in order. In the bottom half of the third inning, wildness and sloppy play got Kenyon on the board. Alexander Hoskins walked and Malcolm Gaynor was hit by a pitch to start the Kenyon rally. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position with one out before a passed ball scored Hoskins. Gow stepped up and scored Gaynor with a ground ball to second to tie the score at 2-2. A bases-loaded wild pitch brought in another run and put the Lords ahead by one, knocking the Wabash starter out of the game. Following the pitching change, Drew Robinson lined a single to left, scoring Capps and Meister for a 5-2 lead.
Kenyon added two more in the bottom of the fifth on consecutive singles by Robinson and Hoskins with the bases loaded. The Little Giants got both runs back in the top of the sixth on their own consecutive singles.
Looking to add to the lead, Rabinowitz smashed a no-doubter onto Mavec Field for an 8-4 lead. The Lords added to the lead in the bottom of the eighth when Meister tripled in pinch-runner Preston Henigan and Capps singled in Meister.
In the top of the ninth, Noah Rosenberg continued his lights-out performance with two groundouts to start the inning before striking out the final batter of the game.
After a few days off, Kenyon looks to build on its program-best win streak on Saturday at DePauw University. First pitch of the doubleheader between the Tigers and Lords is scheduled for noon.
