Santa Clarita, Calif. — This wasn’t the way it was supposed to end.

Instead, The Master’s College was projected to cap off a historic season, fueled by a GSAC regular-season championship and a NAIA National Championship Opening Round win, with a berth in the World Series the last week of May in Lewiston, Idaho.

However, those plans were derailed in crushing fashion over the past two days and finished off in a disappointing manner this afternoon as the University of Northwestern Ohio scored four runs in the first inning and then held on to beat the Mustangs 6-3, eliminating the club from the Opening Round and ending its season prematurely.

The loss, just like Tuesday’s defeat at the hands of Vanguard, came on the heels of another uncharacteristic pitching performance, this one from starter Conner Menez (Hollister, CA) who gave up four runs to the Racers in the top of the first inning.  The sophomore lefty (7-1) had given up that many runs only once in 11 previous starts, a no-decision at Westmont in mid-April.  He wasn’t so fortunate this time as he suffered his only loss of the season.

After the Racers roughed him up, Menez regrouped, retiring the next 12 batters he faced and giving his teammates a chance to come back.

And back they came, chipping away at the 4-0 deficit after getting shut out through the first four frames.  In the fifth, Jon Popadics (Boise, ID) led off with a double, moved to third base when Nick Covello (Skillman, NJ) grounded into a double play, and scored on Josh Brown’s (Valencia, CA) clutch, two-out single through the left side.

An inning later, the Mustangs drew even closer, capitalizing on a Racer error and getting another big, two-out hit to pull within 4-3.  That Racer miscue on John Brazil’s (Potter Valley, CA) leadoff grounder ignited the inning and Popadics capped it off with a two-out single up the middle that plated Brazil and Caleb Halverson (Temple City, CA).  Popadics promptly swiped second base, putting the tying run in scoring position, but he was stranded when Collin Nyenhuis (Vista, CA) struck out.

The Racers responded quickly, though, as Kyle Fisher took a Menez offering over the left-center field fence leading off the seventh.  And they weren’t done, either, picking on Brown, who relieved Menez in the eighth, for a run on two hits that doubled their advantage an inning later.

That was plenty of insurance as Burns retired the final 10 batters he faced, highlighted by three straight 1-2-3 frames to close out the Mustangs.

Popadics, playing in his final collegiate game, was brilliant at the plate, going 3-5 with two rbi.  Brown was the only other Mustang to have more than one hit in the club’s eight-hit attack, going 2-3 with the team’s other rbi.

Although the Mustangs didn’t reach the goal they were shooting for, the disappointing loss couldn’t overshadow a dazzling campaign that produced a 41-10 regular-season record and the team’s third GSAC championship.