Capuchino pitcher Ryan Choi handcuffs Hillsdale

But the Mustangs put the pressure on the Hillsdale defense and the Knights couldn’t handle it. Add in a stellar start from Ryan Choi and it added up to a 9-0 Mustangs win over the Knights in San Mateo Friday afternoon.

“I wasn’t at the game Wednesday, but my coaches told me we hit the ball really hard, but right at them,” said Capuchino manager Matt Wilson. “I told them (before Friday’s game) just keep hitting the ball and things will happen.”

Things, indeed, happened, as the Knights could not seem to make the right play early on. Capuchino (2-2 PAL Bay, 12-5 overall) had only two hits in the top of the first inning, with one being an infield hit.

But Hillsdale (2-4, 10-5) committed three errors in the frame as the Mustangs scored five times as they sent nine batters to the plate. Capuchino added another run on two hits in the second and two more in the third, aided by another Hillsdale error.

In all, eight of the nine Capuchino runs were unearned.

How ugly was it? It took Hillsdale nearly three innings to bat around. In that same amount of time, Capuchino leadoff hitter Ryan Lordier and No. 2 hitter Choi had at-bats in each of the first three innings.

That was more than enough offense for Choi, who didn’t need a lot the way he was pitching. He gave up a two-out single to Jackson Sierra in the top of the first inning — and that was it. Choi went on to throw a complete-game, one-hitter, striking out seven and walking only two in a nice, tidy 76-pitch performance.

“One of my teammates told me (I had a one hitter). … You’re not supposed to do that,” Choi said, laughing. “I kept making pitches and threw my secondary pitches for strikes.”

After the single to Sierra, Choi proceeded to retire the next five batters, including striking out the side in the second. Andrew Murray worked a full-count walk to break Choi’s streak, but he threw just two more pitches to get out of the inning.

In the fourth, Choi needed just seven pitches to retire the Knights, 10 more in fifth and had a six-pitch sixth. He ended the game by retiring 13 of the final 14 batters.

“That was probably my best outing of the season,” Choi said, as he moved above the .500 mark with a 4-3 record, while lowering his ERA from 2.74 to 2.25.

“[Choi] did a great job. … He’s intense. He has a chip on his shoulder,” Wilson said. “I think he did a good job of mixing speeds and hitting his spots. I think as the game went along, he got stronger.”

Choi said it was much easier to get into a groove with a five-run lead before even throwing a pitch as, in the top of the first inning, Hillsdale simply threw the ball all over the field.

Hillsdale starter Chris Kelly probably deserved better, because he did what he was supposed to do: he got the Mustangs to hit grounders to his infielders.

The Knights’ defense, however, did Kelly no favors. In a sign of things to come, Lordier opened the game with a routine grounder to second, but the ball went through the wickets of the Hillsdale second baseman. Choi followed and hit a slow chopper to the third baseman, who tried to get Lordier at second base, but was way late.

Following a strikeout, Nico Caruso hit a solid single through the middle to load the bases. Tim Jang came up and hit another slow roller, this time to shortstop, who tried to go to second for the forceout and was also late, with Lordier coming in to score and keeping the bases loaded.

That brought up Cesar Ceron, who hit a fly ball to shallow left that the left fielder let bounce in front of him. Ceron reached on a fielder’s choice and drove in Choi for the second run of the inning, although Caruso was forced out at third for the second out.

With two outs, Lucas Zayac came up and hit yet another slow chopper toward third. The third baseman fielded the ball, but threw it away at first base, with the ball traveling into foul territory down the right-field line.

The error allowed Jang to score, as did Ceron, who scored from first and Zayac ending up at third.

Zayac would come in to score when the Hillsdale first baseman could not handle a Ryan Burton grounder.

A groundout to first mercifully ended the inning for Hillsdale.

In the second inning, Nicholas Gomez had the hardest hit to that point, as his double drove in Choi, who had reached on an fielder’s choice, for a 6-0 Capuchino lead.

In the third, another throwing error on a Burton bunt and a groundout scored two more unearned runs for the Mustangs, who rounded out the scoring on a Zayac RBI single in the fourth.

“I was very impressed with the way we played,” Wilson said. “The last couple of games we haven’t played our best. We had a long talk after Wednesday’s game and we had a great day of practice Thursday.

“They came out a different team (Friday).”