Master’s Beats Odds, Advances With Win : College baseball: Mustangs follow loss by beating Christ College, 9-4, and must defeat Azusa Pacific twice for title.

After his team’s 5-3 loss to Azusa Pacific early Friday afternoon, The Master’s College Coach Chris Harrison debated the merits of informing his players that no team in the previous eight years of the NAIA District 3 tournament had followed a loss in its second game with a victory in its third game.

Realizing that the news might be demoralizing, Harrison decided against telling his weary team what it was up against during a 30-minute break between games at Azusa Pacific.

Three hours later, Master’s ended the eight-year spell with a 9-4 victory over Christ College of Irvine.

The win advances Master’s to today’s 11 a.m. championship-round game against Azusa Pacific. The only catch is that the Mustangs (25-19) must beat the Cougars twice in the double-elimination format to advance to the area tournament.

The odds were nearly as staggering Friday evening when Master’s fell behind better-rested Christ College, 2-0, in the first inning.

Moreover, the Mustangs stranded two runners with none out in the bottom of the first.

Slowly, Master’s crept back into the game, however. In the second inning, the Mustangs scratched together a run on two walks and two singles--one of them a bunt.

The following inning, Master’s sent nine batters to the plate and drove Christ College’s erratic left-handed starter Matt Olsen from the game with a four-run outburst highlighted by Andy Martin’s double and run-scoring singles by Steve Smith and Brent Sostrum for a 5-3 lead.

In the fourth, Mustang catcher Dan O’Sullivan and designated-hitter Rick Tomlinson hit back-to-back home runs with two out. The pair took advantage of high pitches delivered by Christ College’s weary right-handed reliever Mike Adams.

Three hours earlier, Adams pitched nine innings in a win over Cal Baptist.

It was the sixth home run for O’Sullivan, a freshman from Loomis, Calif. On an 0-1 count he lifted a thigh-high fastball over the right-center-field fence and onto Alosta Avenue where it hit a passing pickup truck.

Tomlinson’s homer, his first of the year, barely cleared the fence.

Adams gamely held the Mustangs scoreless over the next three innnings, but with two out in the eighth he surrendered a two-run home run to O’Sullivan, whose shot over the left-field fence soared over several single-level dormitory buildings.

“That was big,” O’Sullivan said. “I’ve only hit one other as far.”

Adams was relieved by James DiSabato, who allowed a walk and a single before being replaced by Robert Campillo, who moved from catcher to pitcher.

“We didn’t run out of pitching, we just didn’t have quality pitching,” said Christ College Coach Scott Sarver, whose team ended its best season in school history with a 30-17 record, including a 7-2 loss to Master’s on Thursday in a first-round game.

The Eagles had difficulty compensating on offense because the Mustangs made several excellent plays, among them: center fielder Sheldon Sparks’ diving catch in the left-field gap; right fielder Smith catching a line drive and doubling off Adams at second; and reserve second baseman Sostrum going behind the bag to dig out a grounder and begin a 6-4-3 double play.

Master’s made three double plays.

“When a team plays defense like that, they deserve to win,” Sarver said.