CANTON -- The Malone University baseball program celebrated their seniors and graduating players prior to a Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) doubleheader against the Ohio Dominican University Panthers on Saturday.

Braydan Billman, Chase Jessee, Weston Garman, Andrew Hanna, and Tyson Gingerich were all honored in a ceremony between the two games.

As far as the games themselves went, Ohio Dominican (20-26, 11-17 G-MAC) was able to win the series from the Pioneers (17-29, 8-20 G-MAC) by sweeping the doubleheader. The final scores were 6-2 and 6-3.  

Game 1 Highlights
Danny Miller, helped by a perfect 6-4-3 double play, retired ODU in order to start the game, and Malone's offense wasted no time getting things going. 

The Pioneers loaded the bases on three consecutive singles by Jake Aleman, Cameron Martin, and Evan Balzano. JT Tonelli came through with a sacrifice fly to score Aleman and give Malone a 1-0 lead. 

Both teams went scoreless in the second and third innings, but the Panthers broke through for two runs on three hits and an error in the fourth. 

Evan Balzano led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a single. He came around to score later on Boston Black's single up the middle to tie the game at 2-2. 

The game remained deadlocked through the seventh inning, and for the second time in the series extra innings were needed to decide a winner. 

Unfortunately for Malone, the Panthers exploded for four runs in the top of the eighth inning. 

The Pioneers were unable to answer in the bottom half, and ODU picked up the 6-2 win. 

Game 2 Highlights
This time around it was the Panthers who scored first, plating a pair of runs on three hits in the top of the second. 

Just one inning later the Pioneers responded in a big way. 

With two runners on base Cameron Martin smoked a double into the left center alley. Jake Aleman and Andrew Hanna both scored on the play to tie the game at 2-2. 

After Martin stole third base, Evan Balzano's sacrifice fly brought him home to give MU the 3-2 lead. 

Unfortunately ODU got all three of those runs right back in the top of the fourth inning. 

The Panthers added one run to their tally in the fifth, and then held Malone in check the rest of the way to complete the doubleheader sweep with a 6-3 win.

PIONEER POINTS

• Evan Balzano, Jake Aleman, and Cameron Martin all had three hits each in the doubleheader for the Pioneers. Martin led the way with two RBIs. He has now driven in a team-high 41 runs this season. 
• Tyler Jackson and Braydan Billman each had scoreless appearances out of the bullpen in the second game. For Billman, it was his first collegiate pitching appearance. He retired the side in order in the top of the seventh in game two, and struck out the final batter that he faced. 

WHAT'S NEXT?
Malone will close out the 2022 regular season on the road next weekend at Hillsdale College. 

The series begins with a doubleheader on Thursday afternoon. First pitch is slated for 1:00 p.m.