PARKERSBURG, W.Va. -- The Malone University baseball team completed the Great Midwest Athletic Conference series sweep of the Ohio Valley University Fighting Scots on Sunday, winning games three and four of the series 17-0 and 13-0.
The sweep gives head coach
Tom Crank wins 522 and 523 of his career. He has now surpassed the legendary Bob Starcher for the most coaching wins all-time in Malone baseball history.
Malone has now improved their record to 19-17 overall and 13-15 in conference play. The Fighting Scots fall to 5-31 overall and 3-25 inside the G-MAC.
Game 1 Highlights
The offense wasted no time in opening the scoring.
Tyson Gingerich drew a leadoff walk, and in the very next at bat
Joe Crank sent a pitch over the right field fence for his second two-run homerun of the weekend.
Jake Aleman,
Joe Watts, and
JC Philippi drew consecutive walks to load the bases, and
Stone King came through with a two-RBI single to right to make it 4-0 Pioneers. That play helped chase the OVU starting pitcher out of the game without recording an out.
The Pioneers added two more runs in the inning on a triple by
Andrew Hanna. All told, before starter
Tommy Walker threw a single pitch in his team-leading ninth start of the season he was already pitching with a 6-0 lead.
That advantage would have been plenty for Walker who was nearly unhittable on the afternoon. He did not allow a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning, and the only two hits that the Fighting Scots did record failed to even leave the infield.
Malone added two more runs in the second inning on RBI singles by Philippi and King. The Pioneers then put together back-to-back four run innings in the fifth and sixth.
Crank and
Evan Balzano each had a RBI single in the fifth. Watts had two RBIs of his own in that inning on a double. In the sixth Aleman picked up a RBI on a bases loaded walk, while Watts and Philippi were both hit by pitches with the bases juiced which allowed a pair of runs to score. Balzano capped off the sixth with a RBI single to put Malone in front 16-0.
The Pioneers put one final tally on the board in the seventh when
Josh Salinas scored on a ball put in play by
Matt Dile to make it 17-0 Malone.
Walker worked around a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh to cap off his second complete game of the season.
Game 2 Highlights
Malone picked right up where they left off as Gingerich led off the game with a triple, and came in to score on a RBI groundout by Crank.
Freshman
Cooper Davies made his eighth start of the season on the mound, and much like the first game, the early Pioneer lead could have stood the rest of the day because Davies was masterful. He allowed just five hits through seven innings of work. He struck out five batters en route to his second win of the season.
The offense certainly did not settle for just the one run though.
Stone King hit his second homerun of the season, a two-run shot in the fourth to put the Pioneers up 3-0.
Crank added a sacrifice fly in the fifth, but Malone really started to break the game open in the sixth. Aided by two OVU errors the Pioneers scored three runs in the inning to move ahead 7-0.
Malone put the game out of reach in the seventh.
Joe Watts,
JC Philippi,
Bryan Yoder and
Evan Balzano all had RBIs in the inning to help give the Pioneers a 12-0 advantage.
Davies finished off his outing by striking out the side in the seventh, and Philippi added a RBI double in the top of the eighth to put Malone up 13-0.
James Kontur tossed a scoreless eighth inning, and
Tyrus Jones finished off the shutout in the ninth to wrap up the victory for the Pioneers.
PIONEER POINTS
WHAT'S NEXT?
Malone closes out the 2021 regular season this weekend. The Pioneers will make the short trip Walsh University for a four-game series May 7 and 8.
To keep up to date with everything surrounding the Malone University athletic programs this year follow the Pioneers on Twitter and Instagram, like Malone University Athletics on Facebook or visit malonepioneers.com
