SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Trabuco Hills had an excellent corps of pitchers last season, and the Mustangs won the Sea View League baseball championship and advanced to a CIF Southern Section championship game.

That corps, including All-CIF selection Mason Molina, graduated. Trabuco Hills coach Michael Burns was wondering who he could count on to throw this season when …

“One of the boys came up to me and said, ‘Have you seen him throw?’ ” Burns recalled.

The “him” was senior Tyler Byrns, who had played catcher and shortstop in the Mustangs program. Byrns looked like someone who has pitched all of his life Wednesday when he threw a two-hitter and did not allow an earned run in Trabuco Hills’ 4-1 win over San Juan Hills in a Sea View League opener for both teams at San Juan Hills High.

Byrns struck out six with one walk. Junior first baseman Joey Gray had two hits and two RBIs. Mustangs shortstop Will Burns had a double and a single and scored a run, and Joey’s twin brother, Bobby Gray, hit a double and scored the first run.

Trabuco Hills, No. 15 in the Orange County top 25, has a 9-2 record. The Mustangs extended their winning streak to seven games. No. 21 San Juan Hills dropped to 8-5 overall .

Trabuco Hills first baseman Joey Gray drove in two runs in a 4-1 win over San Juan Hills today … ⁦@ocvarsityguy⁩ ⁦@ocvarsity⁩ ⁦@mikehuntley63⁩ pic.twitter.com/ZO9SckE63v

— Steve Fryer (@SteveFryer) March 17, 2022

The Mustangs took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. With two outs, Bobby Gray’s blast to center field one-hopped the fence for a ground-rule double. Joey Gray slashed a single to right-center field to send home his brother.

Tyler Collins was hit by a pitch to lead off the Mustangs’ second inning. Collins took second base on Nick Perez single to right field and both advanced on Ryan Sison’s sacrifice bunt.

Noah Lamm’s hard-hit grounder got through the drawn-in left side of the San Juan Hills infield to drive in Collins for a 2-0 lead.

Burns, who was the Trabuco Hills starting quarterback this past football season, opened the third inning with an infield single and scored on Joey Gray’s triple to center field. Gray scored on Garrett Strenger’s sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

San Juan Hills’ run came in the bottom of the third when Nick Tragos scored on a throwing error, one of three Trabuco Hills errors.

Joey Gray had no trouble identifying room for improvement.

“Making the easy plays,” he said. “We had a couple of (misplayed) ground balls, we had a fly ball we dropped.”

The Stallions used three pitchers, and the most effective was senior right-hander Logan Poyner. He shut out Trabuco Hills on two hits over 3 2/3 innings.

The Stallions going into this week had won four in a row and seven of their past nine games, including wins over No. 17 Dana Hills and No. 24 Fountain Valley.

Trabuco Hills, last season’s Sea View League champion, plays at home against San Juan Hills on Friday.