The St. Joseph Mustangs won Game 1 of the MINK League championship series Friday night at Nevada as they defeated the Griffons 4-3.

St. Joe’s summer college baseball team has a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-three and they’ll go for the clincher Saturday night as they host Nevada in Game 2 at 7:00 p.m. inside Phil Welch Stadium.

The Mustangs got off to a good start in the third inning when Jon Wegener hit a two-out, two-run home run to put St. Joseph ahead 2-0.

Nevada got one run back in the fourth inning and then took the lead, 3-2, in the seventh when A.J. Krist drove in two runs with two outs on a single off Mustangs’ starter Cody Cunningham.

St. Joe answered right back in the top of the eighth inning tough as Jake Kretzer led off with a single and Wegener doubled to left after failing to get a sacrafice bunt down.  Spiker Helms popped out to center before Brent Seifert and Brock Chaffin had back-to-back RBI singles to put the Mustangs ahead 4-3.

The Griffons put two on base with two outs in the bottom of the eighth but St. Joseph closer Doug Shields came on to get the final four outs of the game and earn his 11th save of the season.

Cunningham went 6.2 innings on the mound for the Mustangs and allowed three runs on just four hits.  He struck out seven and walked three.

Ben Baker picked up the win in relief as he threw one scoreless inning before giving way to Shields.

Wegener and Chaffin led the St. Joe offense as they each had two hits.

You can hear Game 2 of the series Saturday night on ESPN 1550 AM.  Pregame begins around 6:45 p.m. and the first pitch is at 7:00 p.m. from Phil Welch Stadium.