AUBURNDALE, Florida -- The Malone University baseball team opened up their spring break Florida trip on Friday with an in-region doubleheader against Northwood University. 

The Timberwolves are the second team 'receiving votes' in the most recent NCBWA NCAA Division II Top-25 Poll. 

Also, as was announced back in 2021, Northwood will be officially joining the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) prior to the start of the 2022-23 academic year. 

Friday's doubleheader was dominated by Malone. The Pioneers (7-1, 0-0 G-MAC) shutout the Timberwolves (8-5, 0-0 GLIAC) 5-0 in the opener, and then finished off the sweep with a 13-3 rout in game two. 

Game 1 Highlights
It was a pitcher's duel early on with Northwood matching Pioneer starter Michael Cook's shutout through the first two innings. 

Malone's offense broke through with a pair of runs in the third on Tyson Gingerich's two-RBI single. 

That would have been plenty of offense to get the job done for Cook, but the Pioneers added on to their total in the top of the sixth. 

Evan Balzano doubled to center to bring home both Jake Aleman and JT Tonelli. JC Philippi followed with a RBI single that scored Balzano, and gave MU the 5-0 lead. 

Cook finished off his complete game shutout to secure the 5-0 win. His final line was 7.0 innings pitched, just two hits allowed, and seven strikeouts. 

Game 2 Highlights
If game one started as a pitcher's duel, the second game was a complete flip of the script. 

Northwood plated an unearned run in the top of the first, but Malone responded with four in their half of the inning. 

Balzano had a RBI single, and Philippi crushed a three-run homerun to put the Pioneers up 4-1. 

Danny Miller scattered three hits over the final six innings of the game. Northwood scored one run in the third and one run in the seventh, but it was really all Malone the rest of the way. 

A Cameron Martin homerun and a Andrew Hanna RBI single made it 6-2 Pioneers after three innings. 

MU also scored on a Northwood error in the fourth, but the game was really broke wide open with six Malone runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

The Pioneers sent eleven men to the plate in the inning. Jake Aleman, Cameron Martin, Boston Black, and Tyson Gingerich all had RBIs in the inning to help give Malone a 13-2 lead. 

The Timberwolves scratched across a run in the top of the seventh, but Miller ultimately shut the door to wrap up the 13-3 Pioneer victory. 

PIONEER POINTS

• Cameron Martin finished the doubleheader 4-7 at the plate with two RBIs and three runs scored. 
• JC Philippi added three hits of his own, and was the team's leading run producer on the afternoon with four RBIs. 
• Tyson Gingerich and Evan Balzano also had multi-hit afternoons, and both players added three RBIs. 
• After his complete game shutout in the opener, Michael Cook now leads the team with 15 strikeouts. His season ERA stands at 2.81.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Saturday's schedule has two more games on it for Malone. The Pioneers will open up the day at 9:30 a.m. with Gannon University. Malone will also play the University of the Sciences at 1:00 p.m. 

Both games will be played at Lake Myrtle Sports Park: Field #7 in Auburndale.