The Malone University baseball team wrapped its spring break schedule with a 12-11 walkoff victory over Assumption College Monday evening in the second game of a doubleheader during Baseball Week at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. The win followed a 15-0 loss to Florida Tech earlier in the day.
 
The Pioneers concluded their spring break trip with a 1-5 record and will carry a 6-6 overall mark into conference play this weekend.
 
Game One Recap - Florida Tech 15, Malone 0
The Pioneers fell behind 5-0 in the bottom of the first and struggled to ever get anything going offensively. The Panthers added a pair of runs in the bottom of the third and four in each of the seventh and eighth innings before finishing off the shutout victory.
 
Tyson Gingerich collected two of Malone's four hits during the game while Joe Watts and Bryan Yoder each added eighth-inning singles.
 
Game Two Recap – Malone 12, Assumption 11
The Malone offense, which totaled 11 runs in the previous five games, broke out in a big way during Monday's finale. The Pioneers pounded out a season-high 17 hits and eight different players scored at least one-run in the high-scoring contest.
 
Malone tallied six of those runs in the first three innings, including three in the opening frame. Following back-to-back singles from Turner Hill and Tyson Gingerich, Joe Crank drove in two with a single to left field. Crank later scored on Clay Wisner's RBI single as Malone jumped out to an early 3-0 lead.
 
Gingerich made it a 4-0 game with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the second. Wisner added another RBI single in the third and scored Malone's sixth run on an Assumption throwing error.
 
The Greyhounds hit three homeruns in the top of the fourth to trim the deficit to 6-4, but Malone would answer with a five-spot in the bottom of the fifth. The Pioneers scored their seventh run on a RBI single from Zach Mottice and their eight on a bases-loaded walk by Hill. Gingerich then cleared the bases with a three-run triple into the left-centerfield gap, giving Malone an 11-4 advantage.
 
Assumption narrowed the margin with four runs in the seventh, including a trio of runs scoring on a three-run homer. Still down 11-8 entering the ninth inning, the Greyhounds used a pair of walks, two singles, and a sacrifice fly to erase what was previously a seven-run margin and tie the game at 11-11. Malone was able to prevent any further damage and went to the bottom of the ninth needing just one run to win.
 
The Pioneers coerced a pair of walks to begin the ninth and then moved the winning run to third base on a wild pitch, setting the stage for a walk-off victory. With his younger brother Kail on third base representing the winning run, Turner Hill went to a 2-2 count before fouling off three straight pitches to stay alive.
 
On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, the Pioneer leadoff man bounced a chopper over the leaping grab of a drawn-in first baseman as Kail Hill came in to score the game-winner while the baseball rolled into shallow right field and the Pioneers rushed the field to celebrate the dramatic victory.
 

B9 | 🚩TURNER HILL WITH A WALKOFF WINNER FOR THE PIONEERS!!!!🚩 pic.twitter.com/OxQ0BVABIG

— Malone Baseball (@BaseballMaloneU) March 9, 2020

Turner Hill reached base five times in the game with three walks and two singles as he was one of Pioneers with multi-hit efforts. He added two RBI, two stolen bases, and two runs scored. Tyson Gingerich reached base four times, including three base hits, stole two bases, and finished with a career-high four RBI.
 
Evan Balzano collected a team-high four base-hits, including two doubles, and two runs scored. Clay Wisner doubled as part of a three-hit game and also scored twice. Zach Mottice produced three hits while Tom Eslich tripled and scored a run.
 
Up Next
Malone will look to carry the momentum from the win into this weekend when they travel to face Hillsdale in the first G-MAC series of the season. The first of two doubleheaders is slated for Saturday, March 14th beginning at 1:00 pm.