CANTON, Ohio – The Malone University softball team recorded a split in Friday's doubleheader versus Walsh University on Friday afternoon. The Pioneers dropped game one to the Cavaliers 5-3 after the visiting team scored four runs in their final two turns at-bat. Malone rebounded for a key 3-2 win in the second game of the day.
 
The Pioneers are now 18-10 overall and 6-6 inside the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). Walsh is 10-20 on the season and 6-8 in conference play.
 
GAME ONE RECAP:
Mia Rose began the doubleheader with a 1-2-3 top of the first with two strikeouts and provided her own run support with an RBI single to score Amber Miller. The Cavaliers would get the run back in the third with the help of a two-out error and RBI double.
 
Malone rallied for some two-out magic themselves in the bottom of the third with hits by Rose and Marlee Pireu followed by an error on the infield for Walsh. Faith Yoho increased the lead to 3-1 with an RBI single up the middle.
 
The Cavaliers were able to get runners on and manufactured the game-tying runs with a wild pitch and RBI single in the sixth. Lacie Quarles and Miller reached base in the bottom half of the frame with walks, but were unable to score. Walsh seized momentum at 5-3 in the seventh with an RBI double that dropped just inside the chalk line in left and a sacrifice fly.
 
Rose was 4-for-4 at the plate to help her own cause in the circle but was saddled with the loss (7-7). She allowed eight hits and four earned run while striking out four.
 
GAME TWO RECAP:
Rose once again got the Pioneers in the run column first with an RBI double in the first. Gabby Meade added an RBI single later in the inning to make it 2-0 Malone. A Sidney Conti single was the only hit in the third, but a parade of Pioneers reached base and a run scored on a bases loaded walk by Quarles to go up 3-0 and chase the Walsh starting pitcher from the game.
 
The Malone starting pitcher Allie Weilnau was able to limit the damage despite the Cavaliers getting base runners in each of the first six innings. A passed ball in the fifth and error in the sixth led to a pair of unearned runs crossing the plate, but Madi Pukansky helped roll a double play to keep the Pioneers in front. The lone 1-2-3 inning for Weilnau came when it mattered most, in the seventh and final inning to secure the 3-2 victory.
 
Weilnau (11-3) fanned five and did not allow an earned run (two unearned). The Malone offense was hitless from the fourth inning on, but Meade did not get out after she singled and reached base on a walk and a hit by pitch.
 
UP NEXT:
The Pioneers make the short trip to Ashland University for a doubleheader on Saturday, April 12 beginning at 12:00 P.M.