INDIANAPOLIS – With 10 wins in its last 11 games from its Spring Break trip in Florida, Malone earned both Great Midwest Athletic Conference Baseball North Division Players of the Week honors on Tuesday.
 
After starting the year 0-4, the Pioneers reeled off nine consecutive wins in Auburndale and closed the trip with a win against West Virginia Wesleyan.
 
Malone upped its season record to 10-5 before the start of conference play, where the Pioneers were tabbed divisional favorites by the coaches in the preseason poll. MU’s first series of the Great Midwest schedule is a dandy, a rematch against reigning tournament champion Kentucky Wesleyan starting March 16.
 
In the past week, Malone beat West Virginia Wesleyan twice, Minnesota Duluth, Saint Anselm and Notre Dame (OH). Two of the games went into extra innings
 
North Division Player of the Week
Joe Crank
Malone
Shortstop
Junior
Louisville, OH (Louisville HS)
 
Crank was a thorn in the side for opposing pitching as the switch-hitting middle infielder scored often and seemingly was on base at will against the six Pioneers’ opponents.
 
In six games, Crank hit .500 (10-for-20) while scoring 11 runs and recording seven RBI. He also legged out seven doubles (six on the same day), drew five walks and reached base three more times after being hit by pitches.
 
His on-base percentage was at .643 for the week and led all players from the North Division.
 
Against Lewis, Crank was 4-for-5 at the plate with three doubles, two RBI and two runs scored. He followed with three more doubles in the same day against West Virginia Wesleyan and played two more runs.
 
Crank recorded three doubles in back-to-back games, the first time a player has done so in league history. The single-game conference record for doubles is four held by Kentucky Wesleyan’s Johnathan Eberhardt back in 2014. Three doubles in a game have been swatted eight times, including three times this year with KWC’s Cody Bridges being the other.
 
Crank is the son of Malone head coach Tom Crank. Tom’s other son, Jon, also played on the Pioneers’ baseball team as a third baseman and finished his senior season in the spring of 2016.
 
Crank is currently hitting .404 in 15 games. He has 19 hits in 47 at-bats and recorded all of his extra-base hits this past week.
 
North Division Picher of the Week
Roscoe Blackburn
Malone
LHP
RS Senior
Worthington, OH (Thomas Worthington HS/Marshall)
 
Blackburn, the reigning Great Midwest Pitcher of the Year, tossed a complete-game one-hit shutout against Notre Dame (OH) during the Pioneers’ Florida excursion.
 
The lefty was electric on the mound as he struck out 15 Falcons hitters and flirted with perfection by only walking two. The redshirt senior was the beneficiary from eight runs generated by the offense and faced just two batters over the minimum.
 
He didn’t allow his first baserunner until a two-out walk in the third inning, but picked him off to end the frame. Blackburn then retired nine straight. The no-hit bid was foiled in the seventh on an infield single.
 
Blackburn finished his masterpiece with a swinging strikeout in the ninth after picking off his second baserunner of the game.
 
Blackburn’s 15 strikeouts is tied for the second most for a single-game in conference history along with New York Mets farmhand and former Kentucky Wesleyan fireballer Matt Pobereyko.
 
Pobereyko also has the all-time record of 18 punchouts vs. Alderson Broaddus in 2015.
 
Through three games started on the spring, Blackburn is now 2-1 with a 1.99 ERA in 22.2 inning pitched.