This weekend, the Kenyon baseball team faced off against the Illinois Institute of Technology and split the series, winning two games and losing two. Both teams put on a hit parade, amassing 92 hits in 30 innings of play, with Kenyon picking up 52. After a road win against Capital University on Wednesday, Kenyon’s record sits at 12-5.
After Saturday’s doubleheader was delayed until Monday due to adverse weather conditions, Sunday’s doubleheader was slated to be Kenyon’s home opener. Unfortunately, the games had to be relocated to nearby Mount Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU) due to high winds causing damage to McCloskey Field (for more on the power outage, see “Kenyon’s campus goes dark”). Despite the unexpected change in venue, Kenyon was grateful for the opportunity to play at MVNU. As Pitcher Edwin Groff ’25 noted in an email to the Collegian, “The field and facilities are super nice, and their staff was extremely accommodating of our team during the power outage.”
Despite taking the lead in both of Sunday’s games, the Owls were unable to hold on as the Scarlet Hawks clawed their way back in both games and ultimately swept the doubleheader. The first game saw Kenyon go ahead 6-1, but Illinois Tech made a comeback and won 12-10 after adding two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh.
In game two, the Owls took an early 2-0 lead with RBI hits from Groff and Tripper Capps ’24 in the first inning, however, the Scarlet Hawks took a 7-4 lead in the sixth after earning five runs. As a result, the Owls suffered an 8-4 defeat.
The Owls remained relentless going into Monday’s games. In an email to the Collegian, Stephen Carr ’24 emphasized the importance of Kenyon’s situational hitting: “There were a lot of two-out rallies that we put together, which was a product of us hitting the ball hard which really kept us in the driver’s seat. We’re a really good hitting team and we put it on display this weekend, even in the games that we lost.”
Monday’s games displayed an impressive performance from the Owls, who scored a total of 29 runs on 26 hits across two victories. Kenyon has now scored 10 or more runs in nine out of their 16 games so far. In game two, they achieved a season high of 18 runs.
With an impressive performance on the mound from Frank Lynch ’25, the Owls held the Scarlet Hawks scoreless throughout six innings, allowing only seven hits and two walks while striking out seven.
The sixth inning proved to be crucial in both games, with the Owls scoring eight runs in the sixth inning of game one and 10 runs in the sixth inning of game two, resulting in the run (mercy) rule being applied in both games after the Owls led by 10 or more after seven innings.
Groff highlighted the team’s ability to bounce back from a difficult Sunday as a credit to the team’s tenacity. “Even though we lost the first two games on Sunday, our offense still kept us in the game throughout the way,” he said. “On Monday, we came back and won the next two games, both by 10+ runs. The ups and downs of this weekend speak volumes to our resilience as a team.”
The Owls prevailed in Wednesday’s game against the Comets with a 15-10 win. In the game against Capital, Kenyon scored 15 runs on 16 hits, seven walks, four hit-by-pitches and three stolen bases. The Owls batted .410 (16-for-39) as a team against the Comets, increasing their team batting average for the season to .354.
The team is gearing up for this upcoming weekend to play Ohio Wesleyan University. Carr believes that the team is prepared to make noise in the conference. “We’re all working really hard but having a lot of fun while we’re at it, which has been vital to our success so far and will be really important going forward,” he said. “If we stay relentless and keep believing in each other, we’re gonna be real solid down the stretch.”