The 1,673 fans at Phil Welch Stadium saw a flashy show on Thursday night. They saw plenty of substance, too, as the St. Joseph Mustangs began their era with a 9-1 thrashing of the Omaha Diamond Spirit.

Even third baseman Johnny Coy was thrilled with the atmosphere in the team’s season opener.

“I expected there to be a lot of people here, but this is amazing,” the former Benton High School standout said. “This is way better than I thought it would be.”

It might have been better than a nervous manager Matt Johnson thought it would be, after inclement weather kept his team from practicing outside.

But Coy provided plenty of substance with a two-run home run in the fourth inning that broke the game open.

Diamond Spirit reliever Matt Herrick served up a pitch that Coy, a Wichita State redshirt this spring, sent nearly 400 feet over the left-field fence, scoring Kyle Wooden, who led off with a walk.

“It was just a fastball in the perfect place for me,” Coy said. “I don’t think it was where he wanted to throw it, but he threw it right down the middle.”

Coy went 2 for 3, hitting a seventh-inning slider nearly as hard for a double off the left-field fence in a four-run outburst.

Wooden had the big hit in that frame, a broken-bat single up the middle with the bases loaded that scored a pair.

Johnson was happy to see the firepower, especially knowing his players had some rust.

“I expected them to come out a little slow because it’s really our first day outside, and some of these guys haven’t seen live pitching in two or three weeks,” Johnson said. “They made the adjustments the second time through really nice, and we really started stinging the ball there toward the end.”

It was more offensive firepower than the Mustangs needed, given the quality pitching. Five Mustangs hurlers combined for a four-hitter, led by starter Blake Thomas. The Missouri Western senior-to-be struck out five and allowed only a ground ball single during the first four innings. He walked one, facing just one over the minimum.

“He was really dominant,” Coy said. “It was obvious to everybody that he should be playing somewhere after college.”

Jordan McGlaughlin pitched two innings, giving up Omaha’s only run in the sixth on Brett Koehn’s RBI single. But he fanned four and walked none. Drew Garwood, Ryan Hook and Ryan Carbah pitched one inning apiece.

Starter Zach Weinandt took the loss for Omaha, giving up two runs during the first three innings. He was victimized by two early errors.

The Mustangs (1-0) will face Building Champions at 7 tonight in another non-league game. Former Northwest Missouri State pitcher Bill Disselhoff will start and is expected to go about three innings as Johnson will continue to employ a pitching-by-committee strategy.

“We’re going to do this for the next couple of nights, just to get everybody innings and see what we’ve got, and hopefully define roles by the end of Saturday night,” Johnson said.

Sports reporter Rick Dunaway can be reached at rick@npgco.com