The Malone University baseball team split a pair of games on day two of its spring break trip to Tucson, Arizona. The Pioneers defeated Concordia University-St. Paul 9-5 in Saturday's opener before falling to Southwest Minnesota State, 10-2, in the nightcap. Malone is now 3-3 on the young season.
 
Game One Recap
The Pioneers fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first on an unearned run by the Golden Bears, but quickly tied it up in the bottom half of the inning. After reaching via a leadoff double, Nate Cobb came around to score on an RBI triple from 3-hole hitter Brenden Wells.
 
Three straight hits off of rookie righty Christian Specht in top of the second led to a pair of runs as Concordia-St. Paul took a 3-1 lead that would hold until the bottom of the fourth.
 
Following back-to-back hits by Matt Noel and Ryan Sarbaugh to lead off the inning, Andy Fletcher came through with a run-producing single. Todd Ropp drove in another with a ground-rule double before no. 9 hitter Zach Mottice gave the Pioneers a 4-3 lead with a single to left. Malone took a 5-3 lead when Cobb drove in Ropp with a sacrifice fly to left.
 
CSP cut the deficit in a half with a manufactured run in the top of the fifth before Malone broke the game open with four runs in the bottom half.
 
Three straight hits to start the inning plated a run and left runners on first and second. From there, sophomore DH Austin White went deep for his first-career homerun, a three-run shot, to give the Pioneers a 9-4 lead.
 
The Golden Bears tacked on a harmless run in the top of the seventh, but senior reliever Jordan Knight came on to strike out two batters in the inning before working a scoreless eighth and ninth. Specht (1-0) was credited with his first-career victory.
 
Matt Noel led the Pioneer offense with three of the Pioneers' 15 hits. Cobb, Wells, Sarbaugh, and Mottice recorded two hits apiece. Joe Crank added a triple.
 
Game Two Recap
Starting pitcher Clyde Yoder (0-2) gave up four early homeruns in the first three innings as SW Minnesota State opened up a 6-1 lead.

Austin White singled to lead off the second inning and moved to third on a double by Michael Mathieu in the top of the second. White later scored on a groundout by Tom Eslich to account for Malone's first run. The Pioneers added another run in the top of the fourth when Zach Mottice came around to score after leading off the inning with a single.

Malone failed to plate another run over the remainder of the game,  but the Mustangs plated four over the next four innings to come away with the 10-2 victory.

Matt Noel once again paced the offense with three more base hits. Mottice collected two. Kyle Kovach and Chandler Stahl each tossed an inning of scoreless relief.

Up Next
Malone will have Sunday off before returning to the diamond on Monday, March 6th for a doubleheader with Dakota Wesleyan (SD) at 3:00 pm MST (5:00 pm EST).