TMU Baseball opens up series by splitting with William Jessup

TMU Baseball took the first game of Thursday's doubleheader against William Jessup University up north, 14-9, before dropping the second one, 10-6.
 
Kameron Quitno pitched eight innings, giving up four runs while striking out three, to earn the win in the first game.
 
With the Mustangs trailing 2-1, Master's exploded for five runs in the top of the fifth and another four in the top of the seventh, to take a 10-4 lead. TMU then tacked on one in the eighth and three in the ninth, proving itself with plenty of cushion to absorb a five-run ninth from William Jessup.
 
A Roy Verdejo homer, his 10th of the season, got the Mustangs on the board in the second inning to reduce their deficit to 2-1. Then in the fifth, Ryan Bricker doubled to tie the game, with a Brock Bell RBI-single giving TMU a lead it would not relinquish.
 
Nick Tuttle added a two-RBI single as part of the five-run fifth inning, before adding a two-RBI-double in the seventh. A Will Batz RBI-triple and Joel Larsen RBI-single got Master's into double digits in the runs' column.
 
Verdejo's RBI-single scored TMU's lone run in the eighth, before a three-run long ball from Bell in the ninth inning rounded out the Mustangs' scoring in the first game.
 
Master's continued to swing the bats well to start the second game, scoring four runs in the top of the first. Byron Smith and Verdejo recorded RBI singles, while a Miles Henderson sacrifice fly and a Jeremiah Farris ground out also brought runners home.
 
However, William Jessup responded with four runs of its own in the bottom of the first to tie the game. Smith homered in the top of the second to quickly restored TMU's lead, only for a solo shot from the Warriors to re-tie the game in the fourth.
 
Once again, Master's went back ahead in its next time up at-bat, with the Mustangs scoring on an error to take a 6-5 lead. But a five-run fifth inning for William Jessup proved to be the difference, with the Warriors turning a one-run deficit into a four-run victory.
 
The two teams, which split a series at Reese Field in February, will conclude their four-game series with two games on Friday. The first pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for noon.