The St. Joseph Mustangs opened up play at the 80th Annual NBC World Series in Wichita Saturday and St. Joe’s summer college baseball upset one of the tournament favorite in round one, defeating the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks 4-2.

St. Joe is now 4-0 all-time in first round games and it’s Alaska’s first loss in the opening round since 2000.  The Goldpanners have won an NBC record six championships and have appeared 27 times in Wichita.

The Mustangs did fall behind early as Alaska scored two runs in the second inning as Jacob Hayes drove in a run with a triple and he scored on a ground out by Eric Hutting.

St. Joseph rallied to tied the game in the fourth inning as Zac Johnson had an RBI double and Brandon Huske had an RBI ground out to make it 2-2.

It stayed that way until the eighth inning when Huske came up one-out singled that scored Trent Hill and Joe Koerper and gave the Mustangs their first lead in the game.

Austin Aspregen worked a perfect eighth inning and then Trent Hill earned the save as he worked around a single and a walk to get the final three outs.

St. Joe starter Jake Jones, a Missouri Western graduate, got the win as he went seven innings and allowed just two runs on five hits to a team that was hitting .321 and had 47 home runs this season.  Jones struck out eight batters and walked just one.

Hill and Tanner Lubach led the Mustangs’ 11-hit attack as they each had three.

St. Joseph moves on to the second round Sunday and will play another NBC Tournament favorite in the Santa Barbara Foresters.  Santa Barbara has won the NBC four times, including back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012.  They defeated St. Joseph 9-6 en route to the championship in 2012.

The first pitch between the Mustangs and Foresters is set for 7:00 p.m. Sunday inside Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita.  The game will be broadcast on 680 KFEQ and here on StJosephPost.com.