An infield base hit, a walk, a balk, and a game-winning two run-single by senior
Austin White all with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Malone University baseball team a 5-4 win over Seton Hill University (PA) Thursday morning during Baseball Week at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. With the win, their third walk-off victory of the season, the Pioneers improved to 8-4.
Recap
Seton Hill, a 2018 Atlantic Regional finalist, took a 4-1 lead over Malone in the top of the fifth inning against Pioneer starting pitching ace
Eric Mullet. Malone's only run during the stretch came in the bottom of the second when a fly ball off of the bat of
Bryan Yoder got lost in the sun and dropped in the outfield for a two-out RBI single.
Still down 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Pioneers scored twice to trim the deficit to one. A one-out double by
Jacob Mottice preceded RBI singles from Yoder and
Tyson Gingerich as Malone made it a 4-3 ball game.
After shutting out the Griffins in their next three at-bats, Malone came to the plate in the ninth with one last chance to tie, only to go ahead and win it.
With two outs in the inning,
Clay Wisner fought off an 0-2 pitch and would reach on an infield single back to the pitcher.
Jacob Mottice then forced a full count and watched ball four just miss as he moved Wisner into scoring position. A balk was issued before
Austin White could see a pitch, moving both runners up 90 feet and Mottice into scoring position.
Down to their final strike for the third time in the inning, the Pioneers won it when White lined an 0-2 pitch into right field to score both runners and send an ecstatic Malone bench into a frenzy.
White and Yoder each finished with two hits and two RBI to lead the Malone offense while Wisner and Mottice both scored twice. In a no-decision, Mullet struck out nine in 6.2 innings pitched. Sophomore reliever
Clay Cooper, who pitched an inning in Wednesday night's victory, tossed 2.1 scoreless frames to earn the win. The lefty recorded four strikeouts and allowed just two hits.
Up Next
The Pioneers play two games on Friday, including a 1:00 pm contest against Assumption, who Malone topped in 17 innings on Monday. Following that game, Malone takes on host Rollins College at 4:00 pm.
