INDIANAPOLIS – Malone’s Brenden Wells and Joshua Hurford were named Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball Players of the Week on Monday.
 
Wells, a senior outfielder, earned G-MAC Player of the Week honors while Hurford, a junior right-handed hurler, was named G-MAC Pitcher of the Week for the second time this spring.
 
The Pioneers were able to split a pair of non-conference games against Walsh and won three of four against defending tournament champ Alderson Broaddus in Canton.
 
Overall, Malone is now 15-9 on the year and 5-3 in league play.
 
Hurford, a junior out of Sebring, Ohio, tossed a seven-inning no-hitter on Saturday in the second game of Malone's doubleheader sweep. Hurford needed just 76 pitches to complete the gem and was just one walk away from a perfect game. The righty struck out three batters, forced three groundouts, and induced 15 fly ball outs as he kept the Battlers off-balanced all afternoon and relied on a terrific performance from the defense behind him. Among the 22 batters he faced, only three saw a three-ball count.
 
His no-hitter was the fourth in the five-year history of the G-MAC. The previous no-hitters around the conference were thrown by Randy Dobnak and Tyler Stage (Alderson Broaddus – both vs. Bluefield State) and former Kentucky Wesleyan fireballer Matt Pobereyko (vs. Alderson Broaddus).
 
This season, Hurford now has two complete-game shutouts and is a perfect 4-0. He sports a minuscule 0.65 ERA with 25 strikeouts over 27.2 innings pitched.
 
Wells, a senior from Beloit, Ohio, extended his hitting streak to 14 straight games, going 12-for-23 (.522) in six contests last week. He collected eight RBI, six runs scored and three extra-base hits, including two doubles and his first home run of the season, as he helped the Pioneers to a 4-2 record. In four G-MAC games against Alderson Broaddus, Wells hit .667 (10-15) with six RBI.
 
Through 24 games this season, Wells is hitting an even .400 with 23 runs scored and 19 RBI.