The Master’s University baseball team lost a trio of 1-run games Saturday against the Menlo Oaks in Atherton, Calif.

The Oaks won all three games of the series against the Mustangs (15-10, 4-8) by 1-run.

Game 1

TMU took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but Menlo scored three to walk-off with a 4-3 win.

Carson Knapp was pitching a gem, going 8.0 innings and allowing one run on two hits and striking out 12.

Knapp took the hill in the top of the 9th, but a walk and two hits took him out of the game with J.T. Friesen coming on in relief. Friesen struck out the first batter he faced, but a walk brought in a run to make it 3-2. The next batter reached on a Mustang error, with two runs coming in to walk it off for the Oaks.

Knapp took the loss with the runners that scored all his responsibility.

TMU got on the board first when Miles Henderson singled in the top of the first inning to score Austin Young. Menlo answered in the bottom of the first with a solo shot to make it 1-1.

Then in the fifth inning, Ty Beck hit his second home run of the series, this time a solo shot, to put The Master’s up 2-1. Three batters later, Kobe Katayama hit into a double play, but Henderson scored to put the Mustangs up 3-1.

The Mustangs had seven hits in the game, with both Henderson and Davis Beavers getting two hits each.

Game 2

In a game that was scheduled for seven innings, The Master’s led 8-4 going into the bottom of the seventh, only to see Menlo score four to send it into extra innings and win it 9-8 in the bottom of the eighth.

The Oaks came back in the bottom half of the last inning in all three games against the Mustangs in this series to either win the game or force extra innings and win it.

A 3-run home run by the Oaks’ D.J. Scott, followed by an RBI single, tied the game at 8-8. An RBI single in the eighth won it for Menlo.

After spotting the Oaks three runs in the bottom of the first, the Mustangs scored four in the top of the second. Gage Webster had an RBI single to score Katayama, followed by Beavers scoring on a wild pitch. Austin Young then stepped up and hit a 2-run home run to make it 4-3.

After Menlo tied the game on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fourth, Webster led off the sixth inning with the first home run of his college career to put TMU back on top. Three batters later, Ryan Mathiesen added another run with a solo shot of his own to make it 6-4. A walk and two hit by a pitch loaded the bases for Katayama, whose single plated Tommy Stanton. Beavers then reached on an error, scoring Henderson, to put TMU up 8-4.

And then… the bottom of the seventh dramatics ensued.

Mathiesen, Katayama and Webster each finished with two hits. Cale Mathison took the loss in the eighth after J.T. Friesen pitched 6.0 innings, giving up seven earned runs on seven hits and struck out five.

The Master’s will next play Tuesday on the road to Irvine, Calif. to face Westcliff. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.