Baseball Sweeps Malone On Senior Day

OVERVIEW – MALONE

SCORES: Northwood Timberwolves 6, Malone Pioneers 0/Northwood Timberwolves 7, Malone Pioneers 1

RECORDS: Northwood (30-19, 23-9 G-MAC), Malone (9-39, 5-27 G-MAC)

LOCATION: Gerace Stadium – Midland, Mich.

RECAP: Northwood baseball ends regular season with a doubleheader sweep over Malone Friday (May 3), with the Timberwolves earning 6-0 and 7-1 wins.

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS (SEVEN INNINGS)

• Drew Charters got the scoring started with a solo home run to center in the bottom of the second, giving Northwood the 1-0 lead.
• The score remained at 1-0 before the Timberwolves put four runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning. Blake Salamon started the scoring, driving in Joey Johnston with a deep double to center field.
• NU added two more runs with an RBI-walk from Charters and a sacrifice fly from Ben Clark.
• Myles Beale capped the fifth with a steal of home to push the Northwood advantage to 5-0.
• A sacrifice fly by E.J. Clark in the sixth inning rounded out the scoring for the game.
• On his senior day, Matt DeFay tossed his first complete game and first shutout at Northwood, allowing six hits and no walks while striking out four.

GAME ONE STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 6/10/1, Malone 0/6/1
• Runners left on base: Northwood 6, Malone 5
• Winning Pitcher – DeFay (5-2):  7 IP, 6 H, 4 K
• Losing Pitcher – TJ Curry (0-1): 4 IP, 10 H, 5 R

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Magno: 2-3, R
• Charters: 1-2, 2 RBI, R, BB
• Johnston: 2-4, 2B, R
• Salamon: 2B, RBI, R

GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS (NINE INNINGS)

• Evan Wiegand recorded the first hit of the game in the top of the third inning with a double. Ben Narr's RBI groundout plated Wiegand for the Timberwolves' first run.
• Later in the inning, an RBI single by Johnston pushed Logan Voth across the plate.
• Johnston then stole third and reached home on a throwing error, extending the NU lead to 3-0 in the third.
• Northwood pushed their advantage to 4-0 in the fourth as Ben Clark stole home.
• After a single by Magno. Salamon brought in Magno with his 40th career home run in unusual fashion. His line drive down the right field line gave Salamon an inside-the-park home run.
• Ben Clark's sacrifice fly drove in Camden Fisher to put the score at 7-0 after six innings.
• The Pioneers plated their first run of the day with an RBI single up the middle in the top of the seventh inning.
• Neither team scored the rest of the way, making the final 7-1.
• Grant LaMarche turned in one of his best starts at Northwood, holding the Pioneers without a hit until the seventh inning.

GAME TWO STATS

• Runs/Hits/Errors: Northwood 7/9/0, Malone 1/6/1
• Runners left on base: Northwood 3, Malone 7
• Winning Pitcher – Grant LaMarche (2-4):  6 IP, H, R, 1 BB, 5 K
• Losing Pitcher – Broc Pickens (1-2): 1 IP, 3 H, 3 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 0 K

TOP NU PERFORMERS

• Wiegand: 3-3, 2B, 3B, R
• Salamon: 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
• Ben Clark: 1-3, RBI, R
• Benji Alderson/Jake Carroll/Jeff Metzger: IP, 0 R each

NORTHWOOD NOTES

• Northwood has now won 30 games in a season for the seventh time in program history. Six of the seven times NU has won 30 games have happened since 2017.
• The Timberwolves clinched the No. 2 seed for the upcoming G-MAC Tournament with today's wins.
• Salamon is the first player in program history to reach the 40 home runs for a career.

UP NEXT

• Northwood will compete in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference tournament starting Wednesday (May 8). Time and opponent will be determined by the end of the weekend.