By Mason Nesbitt, Sports Information Director

COSTA MESA — TMU baseball’s veterans were adamant after a lukewarm regular season that the team would return to form come playoffs.

The thinking was simple: Over the course of two straight runs to the NAIA World Series, several of these Mustangs had been through the fire before. They would be ready.

Evidently, the confidence spilled over to the squad’s freshmen Monday in a four-hour, 13-inning Golden State Athletic Conference tournament opener. Master’s tied the score in the top of the ninth and outlasted Hope International, 4-2, at Dean Harvey Field to advance to a meeting with No. 1 seed William Jessup later in the afternoon.

Master’s freshman Kameron Quitno drove in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 13th. Freshman Caleb Jaime battled through four pressure-packed innings of relief to earn the win on the mound — picking up where starter Robert Winslow left off in nine strong frames.

In the bottom of the 10th, Jaime walked three batters with two outs and fell behind Hope’s No. 3 hitter, Jeff Murray, 1-0.

Murray poked a pitch to right field. Right fielder Preston White made the catch lunging and tumbling toward the line. His glasses flew off. The ball remained securely in his mitt.

The Mustangs (28-23) didn’t let this one get away, winning for the first time this season when they trailed after the eighth inning. They trailed 2-1 entering Monday’s ninth.

With two strikes, White laced a leadoff single to right. He stole second. Then he took third on a passed ball.

Quitno drilled a sinking line drive to left field, where Will Davis reached down and trapped the ball. White tagged and sprinted home, sliding across the plate ahead of the throw. TMU’s dugout erupted.

Quitno came through again in the 13th with the bases loaded, skying a fly ball to center that easily scored Max Maitland (who finished 4-for-5) and gave the Mustangs their first lead of the game. Ethan Brandt was hit by a pitch later in the inning to force in an insurance run.

“I tried not to think too much,” Quitno said. “When you get in a big situation, you kind of want to get all antsy and hit a home run. But that’s not what we needed right there. We just needed a run.”

The Mustangs also needed a clutch effort on the mound.

Winslow said his goal entering the day was to go nine innings, a feat he hadn’t accomplished since April of last year.

The junior righty attacked the strike zone, avoided the big inning and held one of the GSAC’s best offenses to two runs on six hits.

He sat on 113 pitches after the eighth. Brooks planned to take the ball, but when the Mustangs tied the score, he reneged.

“I felt like, ‘It’s his game,'” Brooks said.

The coach applied the same thinking to the 10th, when Jaime loaded the bases. It paid off.

Of falling behind 1-0 on the No. 3 hitter with nowhere to put him?

“It’s not over until you walk him,” Jaime said. “I have a bunch of pitches to throw. He’s not out; he’s not on base. I need to get him out.” He did.

Jaime and Quitno agreed that playing with veterans who have won the GSAC tournament and advanced to the NAIA World Series two straight years helped instill confidence in the new guys.

“They told me to have some fun,” Quitno said of the veterans. “That’s why we play the game.”