Game Recap By Don Gilmore, TMU Assistant SID

Runs were not at a premium Friday afternoon when The Master’s University split a doubleheader with William Jessup in Lincoln, California.

The Mustangs won the opener 11-6 and then settled for a split when the Warriors captured game two, 11-7.

The Mustangs are now 9-5-1 overall and 2-2 in the GSAC.

“It was a remarkable day offensively,” said Mustang head coach Monte Brooks.

Indeed, it was.

It took a couple of innings for the Mustang bats to liven up in the opener.

Down 1-0 going to the third, they quickly tied the game when Max Maitland led off with a double down the right-field line and Aaron Shackelford followed with a triple to center field.

Following a walk, Roy Verdejo singled in Shackelford for a 2-1 lead.

An inning later, the Mustangs created some decisive separation with one swing of the bat.

Freshman Will Batz led off with a single, Nick Tuttle walked, and Maitland loaded the bases with a bunt single. Up stepped Shackelford, who hammered a pitch over the right field fence for a grand slam and a 6-1 lead.

It was Shackelford’s eighth homer of the season and would not be his last during the afternoon.

The Warriors never caught the Mustangs but made it interesting with a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth off TMU starter Kyle Adkins.

Up 6-5 going to the seventh, the Mustangs doubled their advantage with another swing of the bat. Anthony Lepre led off the frame with a solo homer to right field, his seventh of the season.

He wasn’t done with the long ball, either.

In the eighth, the Mustangs loaded the bases again and Verdejo cleared them with a three-run double to left field that handed the club a 10-5 lead.

Nick Tuttle‘s two-out double in the ninth plated pinch-runner Brayden Luft with the club’s final run.

Maitland ignited the Mustangs’ 15-hit attack with three hits while Shackelford (2-for-5, five RBIs) and Verdejo (2-for-4, four RBIs) combined for four hits and nine runs batted in.

Adkins improved to 3-1, going six innings, while Aidan Stout notched his second save with three innings of one-hit, one-run ball.

In the nightcap, it didn’t take long for the scoring to begin.

Lepre gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead in the first when he blasted his eighth home run of the year over the right-center field fence.

The Warriors countered in the second, using a two-run homer and a throwing error to gain a 3-1 lead.

In the fourth, the Mustangs halved the deficit when Kameron Quitno was hit by a pitch, swiped second base, and scored on Byron Smith‘s two-out base hit to left field.

Then in the fifth, it was time for Lepre to show his power once again.

With Tuttle and Shackelford aboard, the senior transfer powered an Ashkhon Kuhaulua pitch over the center field fence to vault the Mustangs in front 5-3.

Lepre now has a team-high nine homers to go with 23 RBIs and a gaudy 1.015 slugging percentage.

That two-run lead lasted all of half an inning as the Warriors knotted the score in the last half of the fifth on a two-run single.

In the sixth, the Warriors used the long ball and some Mustang generosity to score six times for an 11-5 lead.

A two-run homer by Will Law put the Warriors in front 7-5, a two-run double from Jordan Williams made it a four-run game, and three Mustang errors led to two unearned runs.

That was too much for the Mustangs to overcome in the seven-inning game despite Shackelford’s two-run homer in the top of the final frame.

The senior shortstop leads the club with 24 RBIs, and his nine homers match Lepre’s total.

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

— Top photo by Troy Berru.