FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Seniors Pete Violante and Brandon Radd combined for a six-hitter and the Drew University baseball team defeated Kenyon College 6-3 in its Spring Break opener Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the Rangers improved to 3-2 on the season. The Lords were playing their season opener.

Violante (2-0) fired the first six innings and struck out eight while allowing just three runs on four hits and a walk. Radd tossed three scoreless innings, yielding just two hits and a walk en route to his second career save.

Senior Matthew Lange went 3-for-4 at the plate for Drew while classmate Bryan Reagle was 2-for-4 with two runs and a big two-run double.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the second, Drew pushed across a pair of unearned runs. Freshman Matthew Kroll smacked an RBI-double in the inning.

Kenyon went back in front with a two-run third to go up 3-2, but Violante was perfect the rest of the way. He retired the last 10 batters he faced while allowing the ball to leave the infield just once.

In the meantime, the Rangers went in front for good with a four-run fifth that set the final score. Junior Cole Bosch and Lange ripped consecutive one-out singles and a pair of errors brought in Bosch. Then with two outs, Reagle drilled his big two-bagger to break a 3-3 tie. Senior Brent Lincoln capped the inning with a single that brought home Reagle.

Radd worked out of jams in both the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, a pair of errors put runners on second and third with two outs, but he escaped with a strikeout and groundout. He left runners on first and second in the eighth, and after the leadoff man singled in the ninth, he induced a double play before ending the game with a groundout.

The Rangers continue their six-game, seven-day southern swing on Monday, when they take on Lebanon Valley at 11 a.m.