SANTA CLARITA, Calif. --
Ty Beck blasted a bomb to right and
Davis Beavers went 2 for 3 with three RBI as The Master's baseball team opened up the 2024 campaign with an 11-3 win over the Bethesda Flames Friday afternoon at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.
Starting pitcher J.T. Friesen got the win with 5.0 innings pitched, giving up two earned runs on five hits and striking out three. He was followed by
Nolan Inouye for two innings,
Adler Stout for an inning and
Robert York for an inning. The three relievers did not allow a hit while striking out four and walking only one.
"Good opening day. I'm very, very pleased with our pitching," said TMU Head Coach
Monte Brooks. "I loved our staff today. J.T is a solid veteran, Nolan is healthy and he threw a ton of strikes, Adler threw strikes and the freshman (York) threw strikes. They need to understand our defense is in the top 10 in the country, and so let them make their plays."
The Mustangs offense banged out 10 hits, four of which were for extra bases. Beck hit his blast over the right field foul pole in his first at bat of the season, which put The Master's on the board in the second inning to tie the score at 1-1. Four batters later, with
Kobe Katayama on second and
Tommy Gwinn on first,
Davis Beavers stepped up and cracked a two-out single up the middle to plate Katayama.
TMU took the lead for good in the third after Bethesda tied it 2-2.
Cason Brownell's double to right field scored
Miles Henderson and
Ryan Mathiesen.
After adding a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 5-2, Beavers doubled to left to score two in the fifth. A wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by
Joseph DeFrancisco meant four more runs in the inning to take the score to 9-2 Mustangs.
TMU would add another run in the sixth and another in the seventh for the 11-3 win.
"Offensively we had some big hits, some clutch hits that put the pressure on them," Brooks said. "Beavs had two big ones, Ryan (Mathiesen) got on a couple of times, Cason (Brownell's) two-out two-strike knock was big. We could have had some better at bats and as a whole we can do better on the offensive end to get ourselves in better position."
The two teams will square off for a doubleheader on Saturday with the first game scheduled to get underway at 11 a.m. The second game, scheduled for seven innings, will follow 30 minutes after the end of the first.
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