The Master's baseball team travelled to Fullerton, Calif. Thursday, losing to the Hope International Royals 11-4 to open their GSAC season.
The Royals scored in every inning but two in the 9-inning game, with the Mustangs' (10-9, 0-1) pitchers giving up 15 hits while the defense committed five errors.
TMU fell behind 3-0 after two innings before scoring a run in the third and another in the fourth.
Matt Lloyd knocked in
Scotty Pieper for the first Mustangs run with
Ryder Frith-Smith tripling to right to bring
Owen Payn across the plate.
Unfortunately that was the closest The Master's would get as Hope International scored one in the bottom of the fourth, four in the fifth and two more in the sixth to go up 10-2.
Lloyd picked up his second RBI of the game in the seventh when his single to right brought it
Blake Russell.
And in the ninth
Ty Beck drove in Pieper with an RBI single to right, but it wasn't enough to overcome the 11-4 loss.
Pieper finished the game 2 for 3 with a couple runs scored, while Frith-Smith went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
The two teams will be back on the diamond Friday for a doubleheader that starts at 1 p.m. in Fullerton, Calif. Game two will follow 30 minutes after the end of the first game.
