SANTA CLARITA, Calif – The Master’s College was done in by a hit barrage in the opener, but responded with strong pitching to take the nightcap and split a doubleheader with Hope International Saturday afternoon at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.

The Royals collected 15 hits in the opener en route to an 8-2 victory. But junior pitcher Conner Menez (Ormond Beach, FL) shut down the Royal offense in the nightcap as the Mustangs prevailed by a score of 6-1.

The split moved the Mustangs’ overall record to 7-4 and their conference record to 1-2.

In game one, Hope International got on the board in the third inning with a two-out, three-run home run off the bat of junior catcher Sean Clark. Hope slowly extended its lead to seven before TMC got on the scoreboard in the 8th.

The win came despite the fact that TMC junior shortstop Michael Sexton (Puyallup, WA) went 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

In the nightcap, the Mustangs won on the left arm of Menez (2-0). The junior allowed one run on four hits in seven innings pitched. He added 14 strikeouts and walked no one on the afternoon.

“My fastball was working really well and I was hitting my spots in and out”, said Menez when asked about his performance.

The complete game lowered Menez’ earned-run average to 0.90 on the season. The southpaw is also averaging an impressive 13.95 strikeouts per nine innings through his first four starts.

TMC got on the board in the fifth inning by way of a Nick Covello (Skillman, NJ) sacrifice fly. The Mustangs added two more in the fourth and blew the game open with three runs on three hits in the sixth.

“We had some clutch hitting”, commented head coach Monte Brooks after the game.

Senior first baseman Collin Nyenhuis (Vista, CA) got on base four times in the nightcap and drove in one run. Covello and left-fielder Tyler Krahn (Abbotsford, BC, Canada) added two rbi apiece to the victory.

The Mustangs will look to stay on the winning track on Monday as they square off against the University of British Columbia in a non-conference matchup at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.  The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00pm.