By Don Gilmore, Sports Information

Maybe it was the cold weather.

Maybe it was just superb pitching.

Or, maybe it was both on a brisk afternoon of doubleheader baseball at Lou Herwaldt Stadium in Placerita Canyon.

In either case, pitching ruled the day as Westmont blanked The Master’s University 2-0 in the opener while the Mustangs responded in the nightcap to win 3-2.

The Mustangs’ first split of the season left them 14-8 overall and 8-6 in the GSAC.

The opener was virtually all Grant Gardner. The Warriors’ junior righthander pitched 8 1/3 innings of shutout ball, limiting the Mustangs to six hits while striking out nine. He retired the Mustangs in order three times and allowed just two runners to reach third base.

The first of those occasions came in the last of the second inning when Ryan Bricker’s sacrifice bunt put Jaiden France on second base and Preston White on third with just one out. However, Gardner struck out Adam Rubio and Pearson Good to snuff out the rally.

In the top of the third, the Warriors got a lot of help from a usually reliable Mustang defense, which committed three errors, the last of which came with two outs to allow Westmont to score the game’s first run.

That would be all Gardner (4-0) needed for the victory while making Mustang starter Scott Savage (1-2) a tough-luck loser.

Savage went five innings of two-hit ball and struck out six. But that third-inning defensive lapse cost him and he allowed another run in the fifth.

Gardner was pulled one out into the ninth inning after walking White. Reliever Lance Simpson promptly walked France to put the tying runs on board. But, he got a couple of groundouts to squash the Mustang rally for his fourth save of the season.

Runs were hard to come by in the nightcap, too.

Making his first start since late January, TMU starter Robert Winslow was just outstanding.

The junior righthander was very precise with his location and he baffled Warrior hitters to the tune of two hits over six innings. He struck out seven and walked just two.

His teammates got him a run to work with in the second when Bricker doubled to left field with two outs and scored moments later on Kam Quitno’s base hit to left field.

After Winslow produced two shutdown frames, the Mustangs tripled their advantage in the last of the fourth when France singled in White, who had led off with a single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch, and Quitno lifted a sacrifice fly to left field that plated courtesy runner Moises Garcia.

White replaced Winslow (3-0) in the seventh and final frame and made things just a little too interesting. In search of his team-high fourth save of the campaign, the tall righthander surrendered a leadoff single and one out later served up a two-run homer to Travis Vander Molen that drew the Warriors within a run.

However, White buckled down, striking out the next batter he faced and then inducing a game-ending popout.