It was one of those games where everything was fine...
Until it wasn't.
Behind a solid performance from pitcher
Carson Knapp, the Mustangs (31-15) battled the Westmont Warriors in the team's second game of the GSAC Baseball Championship Tournament, but the wheels fell off in the fifth inning helping Westmont grab a 7-4 win.
Knapp had allowed only one hit through four innings, but a lead-off home run followed by an error led to a five-run fifth for the Warriors.
"He threw well," said Head Coach
Monte Brooks. "Our entire staff has thrown well (in the tournament)."
That includes
Nolan Inouye, who previously had only thrown 0.2 IP this season, going for 1.1 IP giving up a run but also collecting two strikeouts.
Tommy Gwinn got the call to the mound for the first time in a Mustangs' uniform, pitching 1.2 innings and allowing one hit while also getting a strikeout.Â
The Mustangs had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, but just could not get them to score. That changed in the seventh inning when
Miles Henderson led off with a single and scored on a base hit by
Ty Beck. Four batters later,
Will Batz pulled one to first but was able to beat out the toss to the pitcher, scoring Beck.
Then in the eighth,
Evan Banks led off with a single and was followed by
Ryan Mathiesen reaching on a Westmont error. three batters later
Cason Brownell stroked a single to center that scored Banks and Mathiesen. But TMU went down in order in the ninth.
Batz and Banks each finished with two hits.
The Mustangs will next face the winner of the Arizona Christian/Vanguard game in an elimination game on Tuesday night with first pith scheduled for 6 p.m. PT.
