A day after losing a 20-5 contest to St. Cloud State, the Malone University baseball team bounced back with an 18-3 win over Northern State University (SD) in the penultimate day of its spring break trip to Tucson, Arizona. The Pioneers, now 8-4 on the season, will conclude their trip with an early morning contest against Oklahoma Panhandle State on Saturday at 9:00 am local time.
 
Recap
The Pioneers wouldn't need long to get the bats started, scoring the game's first run in the top of the first. Nate Cobb, who reached via a leadoff single and moved to third on a base knock from Joe Crank, would come home on an RBI groundout from Brenden Wells.
 
Starting pitcher Braun Miller (1-0) started a string of five straight scoreless innings in the bottom half of the first after working his way out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam.  Miller would go five innings, striking out two while allowing eight hits and a pair of walks.
 
The Malone offense gave Miller plenty of run support, collecting a run in the first, a run in the second, seven in the fourth, five in the fifth, and three in the sixth. Austin White drove in the game's second run with an RBI single in the second before Matt Noel made it 3-0 with a run-scoring single in the third.
 
The Pioneers batted around in the fourth and opened up a 10-0 lead. Keanan Locke drove in three with a bases loaded double, while Noel, White and Michael Mathieu each added run-scoring hits.
 
Locke came through once again with a two-run double as part of a five-run fifth. Mathieu made it 15-0 with his first-career homerun, a towering three-run shot to deep right field.
 
The Pioneers would make it 18-0 with three more runs in the sixth. Wells collected an RBI double while Tom Eslich and Todd Ropp each contributed RBI pinch hits.
 
Northern State added three meaningless runs in the bottom of the seventh before the game was halted after seven complete innings on a mercy rule.
 
All nine batters in the Malone starting lineup pounded out at least one hit as the Pioneers tallied 20 altogether. Cobb singled, double and scored three runs. Crank and Wells also scored three times apiece.
 
Keanan Locke performed cleanup duties to perfection, totaling four hits and five runs driven in. White and Mathieu each delivered three hits while Ryan Sarbaugh posted two hits, including a triple.
 
The 18 runs were the most scored in a game since the Pioneers plated 20 against Salem International in 2012.