Ukiah, CA—On a perfect day for baseball in sunny Northern California the Mariners and Eagles squared off on Tuesday afternoon in a Bay Valley Conference matchup.
It was a rough day for both starting pitchers as they struggled to find the strike zone in the early goings. Marin drew 5 walks in the first inning. An inning in which the Mariners batted around and plated 4 runs, highlighted by Ryan Shalch's 2 RBI double to right field.
Mendocino drew two walks in the bottom half of the first, and loaded the bases with one out but Chris Moreno kept his cool, issued a three pitch strikeout and induced a groundout to first to bring the inning to a close.
After the Eagles put one run on the board in the last of the second. Marin answered with another 4 run inning in the top of the third to make it an 8-1 advantage. Jaymes Potts started off the inning with a drag bunt for a hit. The Mariner's drew two more walks to load the bases for Chris Hayman who hit a sacrifice into left to score Potts from third. Marcus Chiu drew a four pitch walk to load the bases for Matt Tarantino, who drew Marin's tenth walk of the game to bring in another run to make it a 6-1 Marin lead. Ryan Schalch came to the plate with the bases loaded for the second time in three innings and pushed a pitch into centerfield to plate two more runs for the Mariners, pushing the advantage to 8-1 for Marin.
Chris Norman took over for Moreno during the 5th inning and went the remainder of the game for Marin, giving up one run, which was charged to Moreno, and just one hit in a game in which the Mariners didn't want to use too much of their bullpen as a huge matchup with Laney looms large.
When it was all said and done Marin came out on top, 9-4.
Jason Rodriguez had a day in the nine spot getting on base all 5 times he went to the plate, going 3-3 scoring 2 runs and drawing 2 walks. Jaymes Potts went 4-4 with a double, a triple, a sac-fly, and a run scored.
The Mariners are on the road to face Laney Thursday in another big series for the Bay Valley Conference standings.
WP, Chris Norman: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
Ryan Schalch: 2-5, 4 RBI, 1 R, 1 BB
Jaymes Potts: 4-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
Jason Rodriguez: 3-3, 2R, 2 BB