Santa Clarita, Calif. — A quintet of pitchers combined on a seven-hitter and Brandon Van Horn and Michael Sexton homered to ease The Master’s College past Bethesda 6-1 on a cold, damp Tuesday afternoon at Lou Herwaldt Stadium.

The nonconference victory was the club’s season-high-tying fifth in a row and lifted the Mustangs’ overall record to 22-11.

Holding to a pattern that has netted positive results over the past two years, head coach Monte Brooks ran out five hurlers, three of them starters, in another nonconference, mid-week contest and it paid dividends once again.

Junior Jason Karkenny (Chatsworth, CA) opened and threw a perfect first inning, retiring all three batters he faced.

Flame starter Braxton Ravello-Diaz wasn’t so spotless as he surrendered a run in the last of the first that put the Mustangs ahead to stay. With one out, Brandon Van Horn (Tujunga, CA) reached on an infield single and advanced to second base on Collin Nyenhuis’ base hit to left field. Both moved up 90 feet on a flyout and then Van Horn scored on Nick Covello’s (Skillman, NJ) clutch, two-out single to center field.

Armed with a 1-0 lead, Conner Menez (Ormond Beach, FL) followed Karkenny to the mound in the second and the lefty was nothing short of spectacular, striking out all three Flames he encountered. An inning later, he gave up a hit and hit a batter but got out of the frame when both Flames were thrown out on the bases. He was awarded the win and improved to 6-2.

In the bottom of the third, one swing of the bat tripled the Mustang advantage. Van Horn led off with a double to center field and one out later, Michael Sexton (Puyallup, WA) crashed his team-leading 11th home run of the year to extend the lead to 3-0.

Brad Lohse (Chico, CA) took that three-run lead to the hill in the fourth and the Flames picked on him for three hits, sandwiching a couple of doubles around a single to make it a 3-1 game.

The Flames didn’t score again. The same couldn’t be said for the Mustangs, who scored once in the sixth inning and twice more in the seventh to put the game away.

After reliever Aaron Alexander (Concord, CA) kept the Flames off the board in the sixth, his first inning of work, the Mustangs used some small ball to reclaim a three-run lead. David Sheaffer (Mt. Airy, NC) drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second base on a Matt Janes’ (Riverside, CA) sacrifice bunt, and raced home on Jonah Jarrard’s (Rosemead, CA) base hit.

Alexander made that 4-1 lead stand up in the seventh when he wiggled out of a two-on, no-out jam, striking out two Flames with runners on second and third.

Buoyed by that effort, the Mustangs scored twice more in the last of the frame on just one hit. That hit carried over the fence as Van Horn slugged his third home run of the year, a solo shot to lead off the inning. Nyenhuis then reached second base on a Flame error and eventually scored on a passed ball to hand the Mustangs a 6-1 lead.

Reliever Scott Savage (Torrance, CA) took over in the eighth inning and hurled two shutout frames to complete the win.

Van Horn and Jarrard paced the Mustangs’ 11-hit attack with three hits apiece.

Complimenting his team after the game, Brooks said, “It was a strong outing from our staff today. It was nice to see the consistency. Jarrard and Van Horn had wonderful performances at the plate.”

The Mustangs return to GSAC play this weekend when they travel to El Cajon to take on San Diego Christian in a three-game series. The third-place Mustangs hold a two-game advantage over the Hawks.