CANTON, Ohio – The Malone University softball team will go into the Easter holiday with a pair of victories over the University of Findlay. The sweep consisted of a 10-0 five inning shutout victory and a 5-2 win in game two.
 
The Malone Pioneers sit at 10-5-1 overall and an even 4-4 in Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play. The opposing Findlay Oilers drop to 12-13 on the season and 3-5 in league play.
 
GAME ONE RECAP:
After a scoreless top of the first, Bailey Byers crushed a solo homerun to left field to give Malone a 1-0 lead on the first at-bat. Kelsey Byers fanned all three batters in the second to give her five in the first two innings of work.
 
Eight Malone hitters stepped up to the plate in the second. Lauren Bennett brought Mikayla Kesel home with a double into the left center field gap and Bennett scored later in the inning off of a wild pitch.
 
Byers continued right where she left off in the circle and sat down the next two Oiler hitters swinging. The Pioneers took a 5-0 lead in the bottom half of the third with back-to-back RBI doubles from Lauren Bennett and Elizabeth Dyke.
 
Malone broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth by sending 11 to the dish and scored five additional runs. Bailey Byers and Erika Johnson were on base when Lexi Betz hit a three-run blast over the left center field fence. April Howser followed that up with an extra base hit of her own, this one a double into center field. Mikayla Kesel brought Howser in with a single in a string of five consecutive hits for Malone. A bases loaded single from Bailey Byers plated the tenth run of the game.
 
A leadoff double threatened to end the shutout, but Kelsey Byers completed the game with a strikeout and two infield popups. In her five innings of work in game one, Byers recorded eight strikeouts and surrendered just two hits in the complete game shutout.
 
GAME TWO RECAP:
In the second game of the day, the Pioneers struck first in the opening inning. Lexi Betz and Mikayla Kesel each had hits resulting in RBIs to make it 2-0 after one.
 
Malone flashed the leather in inning number two, with April Howser bringing in two groundballs for outs and Kelsey Byers catching a screaming line drive back up the middle. A two-out bases loaded error allowed three to come across in the second to make it 5-0 Pioneers.
 
In the third and fourth innings, Findlay put runners on first and third, but Byers was able to work out of it in both frames. Emily Betts slashed a double right down the left field line in the fourth, but was stranded on third to end the inning.
 
After nine straight scoreless innings, the Oilers brought two runs home with a bases loaded single, but that would be the only time Findlay crossed the plate on the afternoon. Kelsey Byers went the distance for the fourth consecutive game, this time in seven innings, to achieve the 5-2 victory.
 
PIONEER POINTS:

• Kelsey Byers went 12 innings on Saturday where she picked up her ninth and tenth wins of the season in the circle. Overall, Byers sat down 15 hitters and threw a two-hit shutout in five innings in game one.
• Bailey Byers reached base in six of her eight plate appearances. The senior was 4-for-6 with two base on balls, drove in two runs, and scored three times on the afternoon. Byers hit her second homerun of the season and continues to add on to her school record in career dingers with 23.
• Lauren Bennett was perfect in the first game with three hits, two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored.
• Elizabeth Dyke made the start at first base in both games today, going 1-for-3 in both and hitting a double in game one.
• Lexi Betz drove in four runs on the day, a team-high in the doubleheader.

 
UP NEXT:
On Tuesday, Malone is back in action at Ohio Valley University. The road doubleheader will begin at 3 pm in Vienna, West Virginia.