WQIO Ohio's Super Station
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Kenyon College bats kept ringing Wednesday to the tune of 19 hits and a couple more victories. The Owls, winners of eight straight, ended their spring break schedule with a 9-1 run-rule victory over University of Minnesota Morris followed by a 10-3 win against Morrisville State University.
The Owls, who started their trip with two losses, won 10 of their last 12 games and now return to campus with an impressive 10-4 record. As a team, the Owls own a .310 batting average and they outscored spring break opponents, 85-60.
Kenyon won four of its last five games by one run, but the Owls made sure Wednesday’s games weren’t even close.
In game one, the Owls got to work early, scoring five times in the first inning against Minnesota Morris. Both Keala Montgomery and Sophia Lynch had RBI hits in the inning, but the big blow came from Maddie Friday, who ripped a two-run double to left center.
After a couple of scoreless innings, the Owls exploded for four more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Friday started things out with another double and later scored on a single from Arianna Jalomo. A few batters later, Maeve McLaughlin lined a double to center, scoring two more for Kenyon. Madison Buckwalter then singled home McLaughlin to give the Owls an eight-run cushion.
Kylie Hamm, Kenyon’s starting pitcher, threw all five innings and gave up just one run on one hit to improve her record to 7-3.
Kenyon got another solid pitching performance in game two from Jillian Messinger, who went six innings to pick up her first win of the season. She allowed three runs, just one earned, on five hits and three walks. Additionally, she struck out a career-best 10 batters.
While Messinger was holding Morrisville down, the Kenyon bats went back to work, scoring multiple runs in the first, second and third innings. That barrage gave the Owls a 7-1 advantage.
Morrisville scored twice in the fifth inning, but Kenyon put the game away in the sixth, scoring three more times before Hamm came back in and closed the door in the seventh.
At the plate, Natayla Delsante went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI. Montgomery was 3-for-3 with a run and an RBI, while Lynch went 2-for-3 with a a run and two RBI.
As the Owls head back home, Jalomo, Delsante and Montgomery all have batting averages over .300, while Lynch and Buckwalter are at .400 or better.
