For the second straight day, the Malone University baseball team split a pair of Great Midwest Athletic Conference road games with Cedarville University. Malone claimed a 4-1 victory in game one of the doubleheader but dropped game two by a 2-1 margin. The Pioneers are now 11-7 this season and 2-2 in the G-MAC.
Game One Recap
Pioneer starting pitcher Roscoe Blackburn, who came into the weekend leading the G-MAC with a 0.00 ERA, was remarkable on Saturday, striking out a career-high 11 batters in a seven-inning complete game effort. The junior southpaw did not walk a batter and did not allow an earned run as he scattered seven hits and earned his first winning decision of the season. Blackburn has now gone 22.1 innings without allowing an earned run this season.
The Malone offense gave Blackburn a run to work with in the top of the third when Matt Noel delivered a base knock to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead. Two innings later, Nate Cobb would make it 2-0 after scoring on a Cedarville throwing error.
The Yellow Jackets would score their only run of the contest in the bottom half of the fifth. After giving up a leadoff double and then a wild pitch to move the runner to third with no outs, Blackburn buckled down to strikeout the next batter before an infield single put another runner at first. Blackburn was on his way to working out of jam after striking out the next batter before committing his only real blemish of the day.
With runners on the corners and two outs, an errant pickoff attempt allowed the runner on third to trot home. Blackburn responded by striking out the next batter, his third of the inning, to maintain Malone's 2-1 lead.
The Pioneers added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh before Blackburn worked a 1-2-3 bottom half to complete the victory.
Nate Cobb walked twice and scored twice for the Pioneers. Brenden Wells added a double, a run, and an RBI while Keanan Locke added a hit and a run driven in.
Game Two Recap
In an old-fashioned pitchers' duel, freshman righthander Kyle Kovach, making his first career start, shut the Yellow Jackets down over the first three innings before a costly Malone throwing error leadinf off the bottom of the fourth would result in the game's first run.
Cedarville senior pitcher Nathan Bancroft, meanwhile, was dealing for the Jackets, holding Malone scoreless over the first seven innings. The Pioneers took advantage of a Cedarville throwing error in the top of the eighth to finally put a run on the board and tie the game at 1-1.
After a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth, another throwing error by the Pioneers would put runners on first and third with nobody out. Cedarville outfielder Marshall Johnson followed with an RBI single to right that eventually proved to be the game-winner.
Sean Masiakiewicz came on in relief of Bancroft to work a 1-2-3 ninth and preserve the 2-1 victory. Bancroft finished the afternoon with five strikeouts and no earned runs over eight innings.
Kyle Kovach struckout two over four innings before Jordan Yoder came on in relief to toss three scoreless. The duo combined to allow just three hits over seven innings. Tommy Walker (0-1) was charged with the loss after walking the leadoff man in the eighth.
The Pioneer offense collected six hits in the finale. Matt Noel produced the game's only extra-base hit with a double in the sixth.
Up Next
Malone will be back on the road this Wednesday, March 29th for a non-conference doubleheader at Walsh. First pitch is slated for 2:00 pm.
