HILLSDALE, Mich. -- The Malone University baseball team hit the road this weekend for their final series of the 2022 regular season. 

The Pioneers traveled to Hillsdale College on Friday to begin a four-game Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) series with the Chargers. 

Hillsdale (20-25, 12-17 G-MAC) came from behind late in game one to pick up a 4-2 win.

Malone (17-30, 8-21 G-MAC) was leading 1-0 in the second game before it was suspended due to rain in the top of the third inning. 

Game 1 Highlights
After both teams went scoreless in the first inning, Clayton Criss got the Pioneers on the board first with his RBI triple in the top of the second inning. JC Philippi, who had walked earlier in the inning, came around to score on the play to put MU up 1-0. 

Bryce Layton, who made his third start of the season on the mound, was seemingly on cruise control until Hillsdale put a run up on a sacrifice fly in the fifth. 

Malone got that run right back in the sixth however. Evan Balzano led off the inning with a single. After he was advanced on JT Tonelli's sacrifice bunt, Philippi doubled into center field to bring home Balzano and put the Pioneers ahead 2-1. 

Unfortunately the Chargers answered with two runs of their own in the sixth. Hillsdale added a run in the seventh, and kept Malone scoreless the rest of the way to earn the 4-2 win.

PIONEER POINTS

• JC Philippi led the way offensively by going 3-3 at the plate with a walk. He had the one RBI, and also scored a run.
• Evan Balzano also had two hits in game one for Malone.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Game two is set to resume tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Weather permitting, tomorrow's goal is to finish all three games that remain in the series.