Game Recap By Don Gilmore Assistant SID

Kameron Quitno‘s two-run single in the last of the fifth inning put The Master’s University ahead, and Will Batz‘ base hit capped a six-run rally as the Mustangs took a 6-4 lead against Arizona Christian before Saturday’s second game was suspended due to darkness.

The Firestorm won the opener 12-7.

Following the opening series of the GSAC season, the Mustangs are now 8-5-1 overall and 1-2 in Golden State Athletic Conference play.

Down 4-0 going to the last of the fourth in the second game Saturday, the Mustangs scored three times to pull within a run.

“We strung together some amazing at-bats,” said Mustang coach Monte Brooks.

Junior Ryan Bricker singled in Quitno, who had led off the frame with a double.

Then, sophomore transfer Byron Smith slammed his third homer of the season, a two-run shot that plated Bricker.

An inning later, Quitno came through, scoring Aaron Shackelford and pinch-runner Jeremiah Farris with a base hit.

Quitno went 5-for-7 on the afternoon.

Two outs later, Batz made it a two-run game with his run-scoring single that plated pinch-runner Brayden Luft.

The three-run fifth made a winner of starter Caleb Jaime (2-0), who allowed four runs in five innings of work. Aidan Stout came on in the sixth to notch his first save of the season, getting a game-ending strikeout while stranding a couple of Firestorm runners.

In the opener, the Mustangs rallied from a 3-1 deficit only to watch ACU score seven late runs to win.

The Mustang struck first when Quitno scored the game’s initial run on a wild pitch.

However, the Firestorm used single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth frames to move ahead 3-1.

In the last of the fifth, Shackelford and Anthony Lepre went deep with back-to-back homers, tying the game at three-all.

The home runs were the seventh of the season for both Shackelford and Lepre.

Two batters later, Bricker put the Mustangs ahead 4-3, tripling in Quitno, who had reached on a fielder’s choice.

After the Firestorm went back in front with two runs in the top of the sixth, the Mustangs tied it at five-all in the last half of the inning on a Max Maitland one-out single that plated Nick Tuttle, who had led off with a single.

In the seventh, though, ACU used four hits and a Mustang error to score four times on the way to a 9-5 lead.

The Mustangs rallied to within 9-7 in the eighth on a Lepre run-scoring double and a Bricker run-scoring single, but the Firestorm added three more runs in the ninth to put the game in the win column.

Lepre led the Mustangs’ 17-hit attack in the opener, going 4-for-6 with two RBI. Quitno and Bricker had three hits apiece while Maitland, Shackelford, and Roy Verdejo each had two hits.

Here are the box scores for Game 1 and Game 2.

After playing 13 of their first 15 games at home, the Mustangs hit the road next weekend, traveling to Rocklin, California, to take on conference foe William Jessup in doubleheaders Friday and Saturday.