The Malone University baseball team celebrated Senior Day with a doubleheader split against visiting Ohio Valley University Sunday at Schoonover Stadium on the campus of Kent State. Malone took game one 4-2 before closing out the regular season with a 6-4 loss in the nightcap. The Pioneers finished the regular season slate 32-16 and 14-8 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. They will be the number two seed in the upcoming G-MAC Tournament this week.
 
Pioneer seniors Jordan Knight, Keanan Locke, Ryan Sarbaugh, Gunnar Smeyres, and Brenden Wells were honored in between game one and two on Sunday. Locke, a four-year standout outfielder, also became Malone's all-time doubles leader in the opener as he surpassed the previous mark held by Zac Barson since 2009.
 
Game One Recap
The Fighting Scots took an early lead with two unearned runs in the top of the second, but would be held scoreless by Malone pitching over the remainder of the nine-inning affair
 
Coming into the contest with 50 career doubles, one shy of Barson's 51, Keanan Locke wasted no time in tying the mark with a gapper to right center in his first at-bat in the bottom of the second.
 
After a leadoff triple from Joe Crank in the bottom of the sixth, Locke drilled his record-setting 52nd career double to deep centerfield to cut Malone's 2-0 deficit in half. The Pioneers would go on to add three runs in the inning to account for the rest of the scoring. Damian Maglione came through with a clutch two-run single before Tom Eslich executed a safety squeeze play to put the Malone in front 4-2.
 
Making his final home appearance on the mound, Jordan Knight came in to work a scoreless top of the seventh before Keanan Locke belted yet another double, the 53rd of his career and the G-MAC leading 18th of the season, in the bottom half.
 
After giving up a double in the eighth, Knight was pulled in favor of Gunnar Smeyres who induced three straight outs to get Malone out of a jam. Smeyres returned for the ninth inning where he promptly shut the door on the Scots with a 1-2-3 frame to earn his G-MAC leading ninth save of the year. Christian Specht (4-1) picked up the win after tossing three shutout innings of relief.
 
Malone totaled 10 hits in the contest. Eslich and Zach Mottice each recorded a pair of singles to go along with Locke's three doubles.
 
Game Two Recap
Offense wasn't as easy to come by in the early stages of game two.  After spotting Ohio Valley a 4-0 lead in the top of the first, Malone managed just three hits through the first five innings of play.
 
In the top of the sixth, OVU plated two more runs before the Malone bats finally came around in the bottom half. Back-to-back-to-back singles from Matt Noel, Ryan Sarbaugh, and Austin White loaded the bases for Tom Eslich. Eslich would see the Pioneers score two runs score without even swinging the bat as a pair of wild pitches allowed Noel and Sarbaugh to come across the plate to make it 6-2.
 
Following an Eslich walk, Zach Mottice drove in the third run with Malone's fourth single of the inning. The Pioneers failed to score another run in the frame, however, as a pair of baserunning miscues left the score at 6-3.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, a single by Brenden Wells, a Locke walk, and a Noel RBI double made it 6-4 and brought the potential game-winning run to the dish, but the Pioneers failed to push another run across.
 
Wells finished the day with three hits while Noel and Mottice each recorded a pair. Jordan Yoder (2 IP, 3K), Chandler Stahl (1 IP, 3 K), Cody Ballay (1 IP, 1 K), Tommy Walker (.2 IP) and Kyle Kovach (1 IP) all fared well in relief pitching outings.
 
Up Next:
Malone will meet this same Ohio Valley squad on Wednesday, May 10th at 3:15 pm on day one of the G-MAC Tournament. The Pioneers, who went 1-2 in last season's GLIAC Tournament, will be making their first-ever appearance in the G-MAC Championships. The six-team, double-elimination playoff will be held at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament the following week.
 
Bob Starcher Memorial Scholarship Winners
Each year, the Malone athletic department awards a $500 scholarship to a junior baseball player as well as a $500 scholarship to a junior softball player in honor of legendary Malone head coach Bob Starcher. The Scholarship winners were announced prior to the start of Sunday's twinbill.
 
Shelby Hulin, a junior infielder, was named the recipient of the award from the Malone softball team, while this year's baseball scholarship was split three ways between junior pitchers Joshua Hurford, Jordan Yoder, and Roscoe Blackburn. The three are pictured below with head coach Tom Crank and Athletic Director Charlie Grimes.