Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
CANTON, Ohio -- The red-hot Malone Pioneers swept Notre Dame on Friday afternoon, winning by scores of 2-1 and 4-3 in a pair of games at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium.

With the twin victories, Malone has now won 13 of its last 14 games.  Those 14 games are bookended by doubleheaders against NDC (12-23-1); the Pioneers are now 4-0 against the Falcons this season.  On Friday, MU's two wins came in pitcher's-duel, one-run affairs. Between the two former American Mideast Conference foes, six pitchers combined to allow just 22 hits over 14 innings of play.

Game One
Junior right-hander Jared Messer reprised a March 23 effort against NDC -- a two-hit shutout -- by allowing just one unearned run in a complete game victory.  His mound opposite -- junior left-hander Simon Davis -- pitched well in what was a defensive duel throughout.

Neither side managed a run until Notre Dame pushed one across after an MU error in the fourth.  Malone (20-14) countered with a pair of runs n the bottom of that same inning when the Pioneers strung together three straight two-out hits against Davis who did not yield a hit over the first three frames.  Davis finished out the game by getting seven straight outs, but Messer allowed just two singles the rest of the way in preserving the 2-1 win.  He struck out six without issuing a walk in the contest.  The three hits in the fourth were all Davis allowed; he struck out five.

Game Two
More of the same was on tap in the nightcap.  Matt Kastelic and Alex Haines dueled each other into the fourth before a run crossed the plate.  That first run was an unearned one scored in the Malone fourth.

The Pioneers upped their lead to 2-0 on a two-out RBI double by first baseman Matt Anderson in the fifth.  The Falcons, though, came through with three runs in the sixth to take a one-run lead of their own.  NDC's big hit in the sixth was a two-out, two run double off the bat of Bryan Pyper.  But the Notre Dame lead would be short-lived: the Pioneers plated a pair in the bottom of the sixth, with the damage done on three singles.

The Falcons mounted a two-out rally in the seventh, getting runners to the corners before Anderson snagged a wicked hop on a hard grounder to the first.  Anderson toted the ball to first to bring the game to an end and continue what has now been a three-week hot streak for the Pioneers.

Both starters struck out six in the game.  Kastelic went five innings; he was charged with four runs (three earned) on six base hits and one walk.

Freshman third baseman Shane DeFranco went 3-for-5 with two walks on the afternoon.  With the two one-run losses, Notre Dame has now dropped four consecutive games.

The games at the park named for legendary New York Yankee catcher Thurman Munson marked the front half of a two-day, four-game, home-and-home series between NDC and MU.  The two teams are slated to play a twin bill at Pipeyard Stadium in Lorain, Ohio, on Saturday afternoon.