Opening day of the baseball season is always an exciting one for those on the field and even those just in attendance. College of Marin opened the 2017 campaign at Mission College on Friday, and the game lived up to the opening day hype. The back and forth affair ended with a walk off single by Mission College as Marin fell by the score of 7-6.
With the scored tied a six apiece in the bottom of the ninth, Mission College led off with a double and went to third on an error by the pitcher. Although the winning run was just 90 feet away, Mariners pitcher Jason Wutsch kept his cool, induced a comebacker and strikeout to keep the winning run at bay. With two outs Mission College's Jake Ackerman got just of the ball to drive it to the outfield, plating the winning run for the home team.
The game was not without its drama as Marin took a first inning lead via a two run double by MacLean Meyn. Mission scored one in the bottom of the first and two more in the third to take a 3-2 lead. The Mariners answered back in the fifth to tie the game at 3-3 before adding two more in the sixth via a Christian Merriwether RBI triple and Meyn bases loaded walk.
Mission brought the score to 5-4 with an unearned run in the bottom half of the sixth. The home team took the lead as they scored twice in the bottom of the seventh before Marin's Jakob Davidson tied the game at 6-6 in the top of eighth with a sacrifice fly. Marin was unable to push across the go ahead run in the top of the ninth before Ackerman's single won it for Mission in the bottom half.
The Mariner's offense scored six times, while knocking seven hits and drawing nine walks. Meyn had a double, three RBI and walked four times while Jake Munoz scored twice and had a triple and walk of his own. Marin was undone by four errors that led to three unearned runs by Mission. Chrit Rudkin started for the Mariners had allowed one earned run and six hits in four innings.
Marin has a quick chance at vengeance as they host Mission College at 1PM on Saturday, January 28th.