The Kenyon baseball team picked up its first conference wins of the season over the weekend, sweeping Wabash College in a doubleheader home series. Then, on Wednesday, the Owls split with Ohio Wesleyan University. The results improved the Owls to 14-18 on the season (3-9 NCAC).
Saturday’s opener went longer than expected, with a weather delay extending play all the way into the late afternoon. Before the delay, the two teams had already begun exchanging blows. Most notably, in the third inning, Wabash notched four quick runs, which Kenyon responded to with five of its own to erase the deficit and tie the game 6-6. The scoring surge came through the efforts of a Tyler Nee ’27 single, a Gio Giuliani ’27 double and Niko Price ’26 and Aaron Moss ’29 RBI singles. Parker Ellis ’26 and Ben Russell ’27 also tacked on RBIs.
After the weather delay, play resumed, with Wabash taking the lead once more. Kenyon tied the game again in the fourth, but Wabash knocked in three more runs over the course of the next two innings to move ahead 10-8. Kenyon closed the gap in the ninth, when a two-run double from Colbie Corpuz ’29 forced extra innings. In the 10th, Kenyon’s bullpen, led by Jack Enger ’27, kept Wabash off the board. After a pair of baserunners reached in the bottom of the 10th, Russell barrelled a line drive to knock an infielder’s glove off, driving in the winning run.
Enger earned the victory, pitching five innings, allowing four hits and just one earned run. At the plate, Moss went 3 for 6 and Russell went 3 for 4 with two RBIs, stealing the win for Kenyon. Nee also went 3 for 4 with a walk, and his efforts in the victory were enough to earn him NCAC Athlete of the Week honors.
Sunday’s game was less tightly contested. Kenyon built an early lead and rode it out, generating offense at the plate by scoring four runs in the second inning, then adding more in the following three to hold onto an 8-0 lead by the eighth inning. Kenyon’s bats were firing, with RBIs from Nee, Giuliani, Zack Webber ’28, Ellis, Trey Kent-Landrum ’28 and Ben Zimmerman ’26. Despite a brief Wabash comeback, Kenyon held on defensively, pulling out the 8-5 win.
On the mound, Theo Canning ’26 went 2.2 innings and allowed only one hit, followed by five innings by Jackson Niedel ’26 in which he allowed two earned runs and whiffed three, earning him the win. Chris Cannuscio ’28 closed out the game with 1.1 innings, in which he earned his first save of the year to preserve the sweep.
On Wednesday, Kenyon struggled in game one against Ohio Wesleyan. The Battling Bishops got to Owls’ starter Peyton Hodges ’27 early on, scoring a pair of runs in the first to go up 2-0. Hodges regained control, but Kenyon’s bats went silent and the Owls struggled to gain any momentum on the offensive side. Ellis hit a solo home run in the fifth to give Kenyon some life, but an Ohio Wesleyan three-run home run sealed the deal and the Owls fell 6-1.
Kenyon bounced back in game two, however, and won 8-5. Giuliani kicked things off in the first, hitting a solo home run to put the Owls up 1-0. Ohio Wesleyan tied the score in the bottom half of the inning, but Zimmerman quickly countered with a single that scored Ellis. Kenyon broke things open in the fourth, scoring three runs on errors. Then, in the seventh, Zimmerman and Nee hit RBI singles to bring the score to 8-1. Ohio Wesleyan scored four in the bottom of the seventh, but the Owls stayed out of reach and held on for the 8-5 victory.
Now, the Owls will set their sights on a road doubleheader at The College of Wooster on Saturday.