Saturday night’s home finale stood as a microcosm of the Mustangs’ 2009 summer: A record-breaking crowd, efficient baseball, perfect weather.

St. Joseph made the most of every opportunity, blistering the Chillicothe Mudcats 5-1 in front of 4,077 fans — a record for the team at Phil Welch Stadium.

“We executed when it mattered and scored pretty much every time we should have,” said Brent Seifert, the Mustangs third baseman. “We were relaxed and had fun.”

The game carried little importance — in the standings — for the two teams.

The Mudcats secured the MINK League North title with an extra inning victory against the Mustangs on Friday night at Phil Welch. With little riding on the outcome, Chillicothe pitched John Creely, listed on the Mudcats’ roster as a catcher.

Errors, base-running miscues and squandered offensive opportunities characterized that Mustangs’ loss.

Not on Saturday.

The Mustangs put on a workmanlike performance for the home finale:

Seifert provided the biggest explosion of the evening when Creely hung a fastball knee-high over the middle of the plate. Seifert manhandled Creely’s mistake, sending the pitch well over both walls in Phil Welch’s oversized right field. “That felt good all the way, soon as I saw it,” Seifert said. “That was probably my best hit of the whole year.”

Pitcher Blake Thomas (5-2) strolled through the unusually mild July night. He pitched 7 2/3 innings and retired the side in three batters during four of those innings. He allowed just seven hits and didn’t give up a run until the sixth. He surrendered more than one hit an inning only in the first (when the first two Mudcat batters reached before he settled down).

The Mustangs turned lead-off walks into quick runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Back-to-back singles from Rob Lind and Troy Landi plated the fifth-inning run. A single from Rob Lind pushed two runs across during the sixth. The Mustangs plated an insurance run in the eighth.

The home season-ending victory capped a remarkable first year for the college-level, wood bat team. The team averaged more than 1,800 fans just two years removed from the failure of the low-level professional St. Joe Blacksnakes organization, which folded in ugly fashion after just two sesons.

“After we lost on Friday, this is all we wanted,” Seifert said. “We knew we needed to play a good game for all of these fans. They deserved it, and that was important to all of us.”