On Saturday, a few days after getting trounced by Mendocino 9-0, COM Baseball bounced back with a convincing 7-2 victory over the Eagles. Chase Gardner was excellent on the hill, allowing just a one unearned run, while the Mariners' offense scored in five of the first six innings to control the game. Jakob Davidson had two of Marin's 11 hits including his first home run of the season.
The visitors from Mendocino got on the board early with a double to lead off the game. A fielding error by Gardner by the second hitter plated one and put Marin in an early one run hole. Gardner settled down to retire 9 of the following 10 hitters and give his team a chance to bounce back.
Marin's 1-0 deficit would not stand for long as Marcus Chiu singled with one out before Davidson rocketed a pitch over the wall with two away to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead. The bottom of the third, a pair of two out doubles by Chiu and Adam Hussain gave Marin a 3-1 advantage. In the fourth inning, a two out RBI double by Bryan Jakiemiec and an RBI single by Dominic Burke pushed the lead to 5-1 over Mendocino. Marin added another in the bottom of the fifth as Davidson doubled with two away and scored on a single by Jake Munoz.
Mendocino had runners on in the fifth, sixth and seventh but could not push another run across with Gardner on the hill. The Marin starter departed after seven full innings with a stat line that read seven hits, one unearned run, one walk and eight strikeouts.
The Mariners seventh run of the day came in the bottom of the seventh on a bases loaded walk by Alex Davis which plated Chiu who reached on an earlier base on balls.
Bret Boywer relieved Gardner to begin the eighth inning and faced some immediate trouble as Mendocino loaded the bases with nobody out. After a line out, a fielder's choice scored one and left runners on the corners with two away, but a subsequent lineout ended the threat. Mendocino put two on in the top of the ninth but failed to score as Bowyer closed out the Mariners 7-2 win.
Chiu had two hits and a walk while scoring three times in the game. Davidson had a double and a two run home run while Jakiemiec added two hits and an RBI.
With the series even the Mariners travel to Mendocino on Monday, April 10th for the final game of the series.