Christian Mulder could be forgiven if he had flashbacks to how last season ended with the way Thursday’s game started for him.

Parkview Christian’s senior right-hander walked two of the first three Yorkville Christian batters he faced. Control issues contributed to Mulder not making it out of the second inning of a regional semifinal start last year against the same team.

But this is a new year.

Mulder, a Quincy University commit, is one of nine starters back for a Falcons’ team with high aspirations. He showed why Thursday.

Mulder struck out 10 batters in a five-inning no-hitter, and had three doubles at the plate. Landon Malkowski homered for Parkview Christian in a 12-0 win over Yorkville Christian at the Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora.

Mulder got out of the early jam of his own making, and allowed just one baserunner over the last four innings.

“I just focused more on where I was hitting my spots,” Mulder said. “Instead of leaving it a borderline call I started throwing a lot more competitive pitches and that helped a lot.”

Mulder threw 51 of his 79 pitches for strikes with a three-pitch repertoire of a fastball, slider and curveball.

“His fastball had a little ride to it. We threw it up, we threw it outside, we threw it inside, they couldn’t hit it,” Parkview Christian senior catcher James Jefferson said. “We were mixing in the slider, it was tumbling perfectly off of that fastball and they couldn’t touch it. Curveball was working too as a reset pitch.”

Parkview Christian coach Ryan Malkowski was proud of how Mulder responded against a familiar opponent, and pointed to the connection Mulder and Jefferson have as pitcher and catcher.

“He started last year, didn’t go well, to come back with a no-hitter is far better than I would have imagined,” Malkowski said. “Those two, they have worked together for years, the relationship they have and then figuring out early on, we’re getting this pitch, we’re not getting this pitch, a lot of maturity from them as seniors recognizing early on. It takes a little pressure off.”

Mulder finished with a flourish, striking out the last five batters he faced.

“It’s awesome, I knew something was going on, didn’t know exactly how many more innings we were playing,” Mulder said, “but when I got close I just focused on hitting my spots and going back to the inside corner with my fastball.”

The Falcons (10-4) wasted no time providing Mulder ample support.

After Jefferson reached on an error with one out in the first, Mulder doubled in a run. Malkowski followed with a two-run homer to center.

“I’ve recently just been trying to keep it up the middle with my swing,” Malkowski said. “I’ve had issues staying long with my back swing. My coach and my dad has just been telling me to keep it up the middle opposite field and it will turn into a home run and it did today.”

The Falcons capitalized on Yorkville Christian errors to add three more runs in the second and two in the third. Collin Mulder singled in a run and Christian Mulder doubled in two more in the second. Crew Staudacher and Joey Ables singled in runs in the third.

Malkowski singled in a run and stole home with another in the fourth, and Griffin Glenn singled in two.

“We love to capitalize on opportunities we get,” Landon Malkowski said. “We’ve all been playing together since we were 14 years old. We have the chemistry of when to knock people in, when to steal runs.”

The inexperience of Yorkville Christian (3-5-1), on the contrary, showed with the physical errors and also mental mistakes.

“We’re so new at so many different places. The last time we played these guys [in regionals last year] only one guy was in the exact position as he was today,” Yorkville Christian coach Sean Bieterman said.

“We had at one point six juniors and a freshman on the field right now so there’s going to be some learning. What I’m more concerned with is getting our mindset right and understanding where our assignments are. That’s a good baseball team, they took advantage of everything we gave them.”

Bieterman said the goal is to improve to put themselves where they need to be for the playoffs.

Parkview Christian, in its own way, is building toward that as well.

With a strong, experienced roster the Falcons loaded up their schedule with 2A and 3A clubs like St. Francis, Coal City, Bishop McNamara and Timothy Christian.

“I think they can handle it,” coach Malkowski said. “We know we have the talent. For this group the talent is the floor. It’s our chemistry, our character and our intangibles that will take us further than last year. When we play good baseball we’re hard to beat.”