Kyle Guest admitted he was in a slump entering the eighth inning Friday night, but Memorial’s senior first baseman quickly noted it wasn’t much older than a day.

Like the rest of the Mustangs, Guest found his mouth watering when Stratford removed starting pitcher Kevin Hahn in a one-run game. To that point, Hahn had kept Memorial off-balance with an array of fastballs and effective offspeed pitches.

Memorial wasted no time getting to Stratford reliever Matt Kitterman – and keeping its district record perfect.

Michael Ratterree homered to straightaway center field to end Hahn’s night, and two batters later Guest smacked a two-run walkoff homer to left center to give the Mustangs a come-from-behind 6-4 victory in eight innings in a District 19-5A game at Mustang Park.

“We were pretty confident but I have confidence in these guys getting on base,” said Guest, Memorial’s No. 6 hitter Friday. “I wasn’t seeing the ball real well at first; Kevin did a great job pitching. He had a nasty slider and a curveball that worked well for him, so we were all licking our chops when they brought in the new guy (Kitterman). …

“All I wanted was a fly ball to get (Daniel Neumann) home from third. I wasn’t looking for (a home run) but I’ll take it. I couldn’t even feel it coming off the bat.”

Stratford (11-6 overall, 3-3 district) had taken the lead in the top of the eighth, when Will Gould walked with two out and scored on Carson Brown’s double to the right-center field gap.

Brown was 4-for-5 with two doubles and four RBIs.

But no one in the Memorial (14-2-1, 6-0) dugout lost heart, mostly because the middle third of its lineup was due in the bottom of the eighth.

M.P. Cokinos popped out to right before Ratterree slammed a 2-and-0 fastball to center. It was his fourth straight game with a home run.

“We feel like our top six guys are as good as anybody’s. They swing the bat well and there’s always a chance you can hit one out,” Memorial coach Jeremy York said.

Neumann walked before Guest stepped in.

“I knew we’d won because it was a fly ball, but I knew it was gone,” York said.

Stratford failed to capitalize on several chances. It loaded the bases in the first inning but got only one run and left them loaded again in the fifth.

A promising scoring chance in the sixth ended when a runner was picked off between second and third.

Neumann smacked an opposite-field home run to right in the second to tie the game and DeMario Thibodeaux went deep in the the third for a 2-1 lead, but Stratford regained the lead in the fourth when Jared Musgrove’s 2-run shot to left made it 3-2.

Ben Sample and Thibodeaux tied the game with back-to-back doubles in the fifth.

“If they get a few key hits here or there, it’s a totally different ball game,” York said. “Our pitchers were able to bear down and get out of (sticky situations) and we got the key hits when we needed them.”

The Mustangs play their closest district pursuer, one-loss Spring Woods, on Tuesday.

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