NORTH CANTON, Ohio - The Malone University softball team recorded a pair of road wins on Friday afternoon against Walsh University 8-0 in game one and 6-1 in game two. The Pioneers saw Mia Rose break the career strikeout record for the program with her 431st K in the fourth inning of play.
 
Malone is now 22-14 overall and 7-9 inside the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). Walsh falls to 13-21 and 6-12 in the league.
 
GAME ONE RECAP:
Rose helped her own cause in the circle with a two-run double in the first inning to score Morgan Cantrell and Marlee Pireu. Sidney Conti and Aricka Young extended the lead to 4-0 before the Cavaliers took their first swings with RBI singles from each.
 
The offense scored four more in the top of the fourth after Jessie Crookston drove in three runs with a bases loaded triple. Rose recorded her third RBI of the day with a single to score Crookston to go up 8-0. Rose dialed up a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth and worked around a leadoff single in the fifth to secure the run-rule victory.
 
Seven different student-athletes had a hit in the game one win and in the circle, Rose (12-8) fanned three in total and allowed just two hits and one walk in five innings of shutout softball.
 
GAME TWO RECAP:
The Pioneers threw the first punch in game two as well with a pair of first inning runs. Cantrell started her 3-for-4 day with a double down the right field line in her first plate appearance and Pireu singled to left center and advanced to second on the throw home. Crookston drove in a run on a groundout and Rose knocked a single into left to go up 2-0.
 
Madi Pukansky and Amber Miller had hits in the middle innings, but the 2-0 score would hold until the fifth. Cantrell led off the inning with another extra-base hit, this time a triple. Pireu hit a sacrifice fly to score one and Conti added an RBI single in the inning. Cantrell drove in a run with an RBI single in the sixth and a sacrifice fly by Crookston pushed the lead to 6-0.
 
Walsh got one back in the bottom of the sixth to take the zero off the board, but it was not enough to spark a comeback effort. Masyn Baker (6-3) tossed a complete game with one run on six hits with five strikeouts. Malone pounded out 12 hits in total, with multi-hit games credited to Cantrell (3), Rose (2), Conti (2) and Pukansky (2).
 
UP NEXT:
Inclement weather has pushed the Pioneers' next games against Lake Erie College to Sunday, April 19. Those games will be played at Mentor High School beginning at 2:30 P.M.