Baseball: Superlative start

With fifteen new names rounding out a roster that is as deep as it has ever been, the Kenyon baseball team is off to the best start in the history of the 114-year-old program.

The Lords, who are now owners of a 10-4 record, began their 2005 campaign on the last day of February, splitting a double-header with Centre College. A week later, the team traveled south to grind through a two-week slate of games in Florida.

During the first week of their trip, the Lords were entered in the Eastern Mennonite University Spring Classic in Sarasota. They played seven games in five days and wound up being crowned the Classic champion with a 5-2 record.

After collecting their trophy, it was on to Ft. Pierce, where the Lords tangled with five more teams, as well as the weather. In between bouts of rainfall that caused some cancellations and rescheduling, the Lords went 4-1, posting the best record among the six others teams in the tournament pool.

Upon returning home, junior Michael Coe was selected as the North Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for his performances in games against Keystone and Principia colleges. In those two contests, Coe threw a combined fourteen innings and struck out eight batters. He gave up just two earned runs on ten hits, while improving his pitching record to 5-1 and dropping his earned run average to 2.17.

While Kenyon's new-found depth is paying dividends on the mound, it certainly hasn't hurt the Lords' approach at the plate. Through their first fourteen games, sophomores Brad Reynolds and Carlin Shoemaker, as well as junior Matt Marcinczyk, have compiled batting averages over the .400 mark. The Lords have three other players batting over .300, and they have posted a remarkable .344 team batting average.

As the Lords now head into the heart of their conference schedule, they face a legitimate shot at eclipsing the program's single-season record of sixteen wins.