The Master's baseball team got exactly what they needed to keep their post-season hopes alive.
A win!
Behind seven solid innings from
Carson Knapp, the Mustangs defeated the Vanguatrd Lions 4-3 Friday at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.
Knapp got the start on the hill, throwing 7.0 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and striking out three.
"He was great," said TMU Head Coach
Monte Brooks. "Seven strong innings on shorter rest. [He] mixed well and kept them off balance."
Ty Beck got the scoring started in the bottom of the first when his single to center scored
Cason Brownell.
A 2-run home run by Vanguard's Tevis Payne in the third inning put the Lions up by a run.
But the lead was short-lived as the Mustangs answered in the bottom half of the inning when
Ryan Mathiesen hammered his 12th home run of the year that once again plated Brownell, to lift TMU back on top 3-2.
Vanguard tied the game in the sixth with an unearned run.
Then in the bottom of the eighth,
Nolan Inouye's single to left scored
Owen Payn with what would be the game-winning run.
Mathiesen, who had come on to pitch in the top of the eighth in relief of Knapp, then struck out the side in the ninth to get his second win of the season.
The biggest play of the game through came in the fifth inning. With two men on, Vanguard's Evan Avitia hit a high fly ball to deep left field.
Nolan Inouye went back to the fence, hesitated, then jumped, reaching over the fence to rob Avitia of what would have been a 3-run home run. Instead it was a long out and kept the runners on the base paths.
TMU is now one game behind the Lions for the fifth and final spot in the post-season GSAC Championship Tournament.
The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday in Costa Mesa. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m. with the second game to start 30 minutes after the end of the first.
