VIENNA, West Virginia – The Malone University softball team unloaded the offensive weaponry on Tuesday at Ohio Valley with a 14-2 and 11-0 doubleheader sweep of the Fighting Scots. It is the sixth win in the last seven games for Malone, all of which are against Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) opponents.
 
The Pioneers sit at 12-5-1 through 18 games this season, and are 6-4 in their 10 conference games. Ohio Valley is still searching for their first win of the 2021 season at 0-10 and 0-6 in G-MAC action.
 
GAME ONE RECAP:
Bailey Byers started the top of the first with a walk, but cleanup hitter April Howser ripped a homerun over the left field fence to take an early 2-0 lead. Ohio Valley responded nicely with a two-run blast of their own to tie the game up in the bottom half of the inning.
 
Once again with two outs, Erika Johnson hit a two RBI double that brought home Lauren Bennett and Amber Burick and Johnson was brought in on a single by Lexi Betz to make it 5-2 Pioneers.
 
Malone brought four runs across in the top of the third inning, all coming off of homeruns. Mikayla Kesel notched her first homerun as a Pioneer to lead off the frame, and Bailey Byers hit a rocket that left the yard to take a commanding 9-2 advantage. In the fourth inning, an error allowed an unearned run to score for Malone.
 
The top of the fifth looked very similar to the third, only the homerun hitters in opposite places. Bailey Byers and Mikayla Kesel each hit their second homeruns of the game, but it was a solo shot by Byers and a three-run bomb from Kesel.
 
Kelsey Byers pitched all five innings in the 14-2 run-rule victory and allowed only the two hits in the bottom of the first inning.
 
GAME TWO RECAP:
The offense continued to click in game two of the doubleheader in Vienna, West Virginia. Bailey Byers led off the first with an absolute moonshot to left center field to make it 1-0 Malone in the blink of an eye. Erika Johnson and April Howser each reached in the first with base hits and Johnson later scored on a wild pitch. Elizabeth Dyke knocked an RBI single into center field to make it 3-0 before the Fighting Scots took an at bat.
 
Emily Betts and Erika Johnson singled to put runners on in the second inning and Betts later scored on an error. Kelsey Byers continued to dominate in the circle by picking up back-to-back K's in the second to end the 1-2-3 inning.
 
Three Pioneers reached base in a row to start the third, including back-to-back doubles from Lauren Bennett and Elizabeth Dyke to score a run. Bailey Byers singled with one away to bring home a sixth run in the game. Emily Spada scored on a bases loaded wild pitch, and Lexi Betz continued to extend her team lead in RBIs with a three-run homerun to put an exclamation point on the six-run inning.
 
In the top of the fifth, Lexi Betz and April Howser had back-to-back hits to tack on an 11th run for the Pioneers. Betz had another extra base hit, this time a double over the center fielder's head and April Howser recorded an RBI with a base hit to center field.
 
Jensen Miller came on in the fifth inning to close the door on the doubleheader sweep with an 11-0 game two win.
 
PIONEER POINTS:

• Malone scored in nine of the 10 innings played on Tuesday with 10 different players getting hits.
• Bailey Byers hit three homeruns on the day and was 4-for-7 with a walk overall. Byers brought home a team-high six RBIs from the leadoff spot and scored a team-best five runs.
• Erika Johnson and Lexi Betz joined Byers as hitters with a multiple hits in both games today. Johnson was 5-for-8 with two RBIs and four runs scored, while Betz went 4-for-8 in total, with a homerun, four RBIs and three runs scored.
• Mikayla Kesel did her damage with the long ball at the plate, hitting two homeruns in game one. Kesel was 3-for-4 in the opening game, all of them extra base hits, and drove in four runs while scoring twice herself.
• Kelsey Byers tossed nine innings on her way to picking up the 11th and 12th wins of the season. Byers surrendered five hits, two earned runs and faned nine.

 
UP NEXT:
Malone continues their six game road trip with a pair of conference doubleheaders this weekend. First up, the Pioneers go to Columbus to take on the Ohio Dominican University Panthers on Friday, April 9. First pitch at ODU will come at 3 pm.