CANTON, Ohio – In the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) opening weekend, the Malone University baseball team split the opening games of a four-game series with Hillsdale College. Malone (8-8) won game one 5-2, but lost the second game 9-8 in extra innings to Hillsdale (7-10).
 
GAME ONE RECAP:
A pair of hits and a stolen base for the Chargers led to the first run of the game in the opening set of at-bats. In the bottom of the second, the Pioneers loaded the bases but could not scratch across the tying run. Jordan Stevens led off the frame with a double down the left field line. Malone would even the score in the fourth thanks to a leadoff double from Jake Barker and an RBI single off the bat of Zach Flohr.
 
Hillsdale claimed a 2-1 advantage in the top of the sixth with two hits and a sacrifice fly. The Pioneers responded with a two-run homerun from Flohr in the bottom half of the inning to give him three runs batted in on the day. Malone added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth via an Eric Baum two-run single. Barker and Chris Munoz got on with hits and Robert Gumino reached on a hit by pitch to load the bases ahead of the senior Baum.
 
In the top of the ninth, Cooper Davies was called upon to lock down the win. He would do so despite allowing two baserunners in the first two batters he faced. Davies struck out two for his second save of the season. The starting pitcher Jackson Phelps (3-0) earned the win after going six innings where he allowed five hits, two runs and one walk. Phelps struck out a team-high five Chargers. Nate Plack earned the hold with two shutout innings in relief.
 
Flohr and Baum laid claim to all five runs batted in, but Stevens, Barker and Flohr all had multi-hit games at 2-for-4. Anthony Bartiromo reached base three times with one hit and a pair of walks.
 
GAME TWO RECAP:
Game two of the series featured a pair of crooked numbers that turned the tables of the game. Hillsdale took the early lead with five runs all coming with two outs in the top of the second inning. Aside from one frame that got away from him, starting pitcher Jacob Rollyson rolled zeros in his other three innings pitched.
 
The 5-0 deficit remained all the way until the bottom of the fifth when the Pioneers would not only get back into the game, but take a 6-5 lead. Barker drove in two runs with a single to begin the scoring, followed by a Munoz RBI on a groundout and a wild pitch. Baum was able to play the hero once again with a triple into the right center field gap to plate the tying and go-ahead runs.
 
The lead would not hold for Malone, however, as Hillsdale put up a three-run top of the sixth to go back in front, 8-6. Three walks loaded the bases for Bartiromo with one out remaining and he sliced a single through the right side of the infield to score to and knot the game up at 8-8.
 
In extra innings, the runner placed on second base as an international tiebreaker came around to score for the Chargers after they used small ball tactics to move him over and in. The opposing pitcher threw away a pickoff attempt to put the tying run on third, but Malone was unable to plate that run and fell 9-8.
 
The Pioneers scored eight runs on just seven hits, with Bartiromo the only man to have multiple hits in game two. Allen Laytart threw 1.2 innings of relief work without allowing a run and Jackson Schwalbach (0-2) was saddled with the loss after the unearned run came around to score.
 
UP NEXT:
The Pioneers and Chargers conclude their four-game conference series on Saturday, March 15 with a doubleheader beginning at 3:00 P.M.