Several costly Mustangs mistakes led directly to runs scored by No. 11 William Carey University (MS) as The Master's lost 12-7 Friday at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.
Three errors led to four unearned runs, and a bases loaded balk brought in another run.
"Kind of a tale of two games," said TMU Head Coach
Monte Brooks, referring to the game Thursday in which TMU won 15-1. "We didn't take care of the baseball. Offensively we did pretty good, we out-hit them. But on the defensive end we struggled."
TMU finished with 14 hits while the Crusasders had 10.
The scored remained 0-0 until the top of the third inning when a pair of Mustang errors led to a sacrifice fly to put William Carey up 1-0.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the third, the Crusaders added three more in the top of the fourth. The big blow came when the No. 9 hitter, Alan McClean, laced a single to left to score two.
TMU put a run on the board on the bottom of the fourth when
Cole Rohlmeier scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.
But the Crusaders added five more in the top of the fifth to go up 9-1. A bases loaded walk and a balk helped add to the William Carey score.
Neither team scored over the next three innings. That's when the offense came alive for The Master's.
Jack Drew led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to center field. Two batters later
Zach Jenkins singled to score Drew. Moments later,
Scotty Pieper doubled down the right field line to plate
Ryder Frith-Smith and
Johan Pelayo to make it 9-4.
Ty Beck then crushed his third home run of the season, this time over the right-center field fence, to make it a 9-6 game.
Isaiah Morales followed with a double to left and then a Rohlmeier single brought home Morales to bring Master's to within two.
But in the top of the ninth, errors again led to runs for the Crusaders, which scored three total in the inning. TMU could not mount another comeback, picking up their second loss of the season.
Coach Brooks knew his team had a comeback in them and he was quite pleased with what they did in the eighth.
"We spend a lot of time talking about playing the whole game," Brooks said. "Winning pitch by pitch by pitch and then let the outcome do what it's going to do. Our intensity, our effort, be a student of the game, continue to have confidence, know the motivation for us to play is to honor the Lord, and that is until the last out. So these guys embracing that and reminding each other of that gives us the right perspective to play the whole game."
Morales and Drew each finished with three hits while Beck, Rohlmeier and Jenkins each added two.
These two teams will finish off their 4-game series with a doubleheader Saturday at Lou Herwaldt Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m.
