The Matadors (1-0) strung together timely hits Friday afternoon against Sacramento State and managed to hold on to a late lead for a 6-4 season-opening win.

Junior Alex Muren turned in 6 2/3 innings on 99 pitches and gave up four hits and three earned runs for the win.

Matadors Miles Williams, Chester Pak and Brett Balkan tallied two hits each, accounting for six of CSUN’s nine hits on the day.

The Matadors got on the scoreboard first after junior catcher Marty Bowen opened up the second inning by getting hit by a 2-2 pitch.

The Matadors followed up with a Todd Eskelin walk and a Williams bunt to put Bowen on third. A squeeze play by Dylan Young successfully scored Bowen for the 1-0 CSUN lead.

After a Hornets run in the bottom half of the second, CSUN took the lead again in the fourth on a Pak single, scoring Williams for the 2-1 advantage.

CSUN responded to another Sacramento State run in the fifth inning with two runs in the sixth. Three consecutive singles by the Matadors were enough to put them ahead 4-2 before giving up another run to the Hornets in the bottom of the seventh.

After tacking on two more runs in the ninth, CSUN held off a bases-loaded situation in the bottom half to earn the victory.

Balkan led all Matadors with two RBI in three plate appearances.