The Malone University baseball team compiled 24 runs on 25 hits in a doubleheader sweep of Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) foe Davis & Elkins College Saturday afternoon at Jackson High School. The Pioneers completed a 4-0 weekend with a 10-7 victory over the Senators in game one followed by a 14-9 triumph in game two. With the victories, Malone improved to 19-9 on the year and 9-3 in the G-MAC.
 
Game One Recap
In stark contrast to Friday's doubleheader against Alderson Broaddus where pitching dominated for both teams across both doubleheaders, the bats heated up on Saturday as the two squads combined for 45 base hits across the two games, including 22 hits, 13 by Malone, in the opener.
 
Back-to-back doubles by Zach Mottice and Nate Cobb in the top of the third inning led to the game's first run and a 1-0 lead for the Pioneers. An RBI single by Turner Hill put Malone up by two before Austin White smashed a homerun to centerfield to complete a four-run inning. White's homer was his second in the last four games.
 
Davis & Elkins got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homer off of Malone starter Eric Muillet (3-0). Mullet gave up another solo shot in the bottom of the sixth, but was otherwise sensational. The crafty righthander struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings and allowed just five hits and a walk. He left with a 10-2 lead after Malone scored two runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth.
 
Matt Noel belted a double to deep center in the fifth inning to score a pair. In the sixth, he produced an RBI single that preceded a pair of RBI groundouts and a D&E throwing error that led to another Malone run.
 
Trailing 10-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Senators took advantage of three hit-by-pitches and a pair of doubles to score five runs before Jordan Yoder came in to strike out the final batter of the game and earn his second career save.
 
White led Malone with three hits, three runs, and two RBI while Noel finished with two hits and three runs driven in. Cobb, Hill, and Mottice all finished with two hits including a double while Joe Crank and Todd Ropp each added a two-bagger.
 
Game Two Recap
Joe Crank's RBI triple gave Malone a 1-0 edge in the top of the first before D&E scored four times in the bottom half of the inning. Senator outfielder Bragg Eastin, who hit the fourth-inning homer in game one, delivered a grand slam homerun in game two to give D&E a 4-1 lead.
 
That lead was, however, short-lived as Malone answered with five runs in the top of the second. Zach Mottice's two-run double to the left centerfield gap with the bases loaded cut the deficit to 4-3. On the very next pitch, Nate Cobb crushed a D&E offering off of the scoreboard in right field for a three-run homer, the second of his collegiate career. The blast gave the Pioneers a lead they never relinquished as they went on to score at least once in each of the next four innings.
 
Cobb added an RBI single an inning later and then scored on an RBI groundout by Turner Hill. A D&E error in the frame, helped Malone grab a 9-4 lead.
 
In the bottom of the third, another solo shot by Eastin, his third homer of the day, cut the deficit to 9-5, but Malone scored two more runs in the top of the fourth. An RBI double by Matt Noel and a run-scoring single by Damian Maglione gave the Pioneers an 11-5 advantage.
 
Davis & Elkins responded with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth before Malone scored on another error in the fifth to make it 12-7.
 
In the top of the sixth, Cobb came through once again, tripling to deep center to plate two more runs and give the Pioneers a 14-7 lead. A two-run shot by the Senators' Maxx Mahon cut the margin to 14-9 in the sixth, but Jordan Yoder held them scoreless in the seventh to preserve the victory.
 
Cobb finished with three hits, two runs, a stolen base, and a career-high six RBI to lead the Malone offense. Crank, who added his team-leading 12th double in the game, added two hits, as did Maglione, who also scored twice. Jacob Mottice stole a base and scored three times while Zach Mottice stole a base and scored twice.
 
Up Next
Malone is scheduled to host NCAA DII #9 Mercyhurst in a non-conference contest on Tuesday, April 3rd beginning at 12:00 pm. The Lakers downed Malone 9-5 this past Monday.