BLUFFTON, Ohio - Comeback sauce was on the menu as the Bluffton University softball team rallied twice for a sweep of visiting Kenyon College on a beautiful Saturday, March 21, 2026. The Beavers improved to 6-6 on the season, while Kenyon slipped to 7-9 despite the Owls being one out away from a mercy-rule victory in game two.
Senior Julia Tegeder (Hamilton) doubled and scored on a Kenyon throwing error in the bottom of the third, but the Beavers trailed 5-1 going to the home fifth. Back-to-back walks for Kaylee Grant (Lima/Shawnee) and Grace Gronberg (Danville) set the stage for some Hailey Mowell (Cincinnati/Reading) heroics as the freshman pinch hitter delivered a three-run bomb to left center which pulled the Beavers within a run (5-4) going to the sixth.
Grant drew a one-out walk and she scurried around courtesy of a Gronberg double to right center. Gronberg came around when Kenyon misfired on Mowell's grounder to shortstop. Junior Halee McDade (Oxford/Talawanda) gave the Beavers some breathing room with a base knock up the middle that plated Madison Brentlinger (Indian Lake) from second.
Gronberg worked around a one-out double in the top of the seventh, improving to 3-2 with her complete-game victory. She allowed five runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and two walks.
Brentlinger and Gronberg both smacked three hits in the lidlifter. Grant and Gronberg scored two runs apiece, while Mowell drove in three with her first collegiate homer! Freshman Brooklynn Bakle (Paulding) chipped in with a pair of safeties.
A Bakle RBI double that plated Leah Ramirez (Elida) was the only run Bluffton could manage through the first four innings of game two as Kenyon was up 9-1 with two outs in the bottom of the fifth on the verge of a mercy-rule victory. That, however, is when the fun began. Brentlinger assured the Beavers of going to the sixth inning when her two-run two-bagger to left center picked up Gronberg and Tegeder. Junior Ella McCombs (Springfield/Southeastern) made it 9-4 when she reached on another Kenyon miscue. Bakle drew a bases-loaded walk and then Taryn Hampton (Fostoria/Hoipewell Louden) smoked a bases-clearing double over the center fielder's head, making it a one-run game (9-8).
The Owls pushed it to 11-8 with two runs on just one hit in the top of the sixth, but the home team continued its late-game scoring with four tallies in the bottom of the frame! Gronberg hammered her team-best fourth dinger of the season on the third pitch of the inning. Brentlinger crossed the dish when Kenyon failed to haul in Ramirez's fly ball to the warning track and then she came around to score when Colleen Meese (Rocky River) launched a ground-rule double to left center. Bakle's sacrifice fly to right proved to be the game winner as Meese beat the throw home and Kenyon was unable to take advantage of a hit batter and a walk in the top of the seventh.
Freshman Klary McKay (Salem/Mahoning County Career Tech Center) allowed eight runs on six hits in 4.1 innings of work, but she did not factor in the decision. Meese tossed 1.2 innings and improved to 1-1 after allowing three runs, two earned on two hits with one walk. Freshman Jillian Meyer (Mason/William Mason) notched her first collegiate save thanks to a shutout seventh inning.
Bluffton pounded out 15 hits in game two with six women smacking two safeties each. Bakle and Hampton drove in three runs apiece, while Ramirez scored three times. Gronberg, Meese and Brentlinger all scored multiple runs in game two.
The Bluffton softball team will be back at home for Albion College on Tuesday, March 24, when the Britons come to town for a 3:30 p.m. double feature.
-BEAVERS-