TMU Baseball took the first game of its weekend slate against No. 15 Hope International University in Fullerton, but will have to wait until the postseason for its 30th victory of the campaign after the Royals recorded three-straight wins to close the regular season.
Â
Master's won Friday's first game, 8-7, scoring more runs than the team managed in the final three contests combined.
Â
Miles Henderson's single up the middle put the Mustangs ahead in the top of the first. After HIU scored the next four runs,
Austin Young's RBI-single and
Evan Banks' two-run home run in the fifth tied the game.
Â
Corny Miller hit two run-scoring singles, scoring two in the sixth and one in the eighth, to put Master's up by two runs each time.
Â
Henderson then rounded out TMU's scoring with a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth, giving the Mustangs a valuable insurance run that proved to be the difference.
Â
The Royals scored twice in the bottom half, but
Kameron Quitno was able to complete the save, his seventh of the season which ranks second in the conference.
Â
HIU then proceeded to shutout TMU over the next 14 innings, winning Friday's second game 6-0 before taking the series lead with an 8-5 victory in Saturday's opening contest.
Â
Master's didn't score for the first seven innings on Saturday, before scoring two in the eighth and three in the ninth.
Kobe Katayama's single, Banks' double and Henderson's single all scored runs, but it was too little too late for the Mustangs.
Â
Hope then held TMU scoreless for the opening five innings of the final game, taking a 3-0 lead. After Master's scored on a wild pitch to get to within two in the top of the sixth, the Royals scored 10 runs in the bottom half to run away with the game and the series, clinching a share of the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season title.
Â
Joe Terlizzi's RBI-single in the seventh was mere consolation in the 13-2 defeat.
Â
Master's (29-22 overall, 15-17 GSAC) earned the fifth seed in the upcoming GSAC Tournament, which will take place May 2-5 in Irvine at the OC Great Park.