On Saturday, the Mariners displayed why they are on the brink of a BVC Championship. Excellent pitching and timely hitting were key again as Marin grabbed the 5-0 victory to move within one win of the BVC Title. Chase Gardner threw seven shutout innings as the Mariners' balanced attack led them to a three game sweep over the Solano College Falcons.
The game began a pitchers' duel as neither team could break through for the first two innings. The Mariners broke the 0-0 deadlock in the bottom of the third as Nick Heimbroadt reached second with two away and scored on a single by Marcus Chiu for a 1-0 Marin lead.
Gardner kept the Solano bats silent as he allowed just three walks and a single across while striking out nine batters in seven scoreless innings on the mound.
The score remained 1-0 in favor of Marin until the bottom of the sixth when Alex Davis doubled in Jake Munoz to increase the Mariners' lead to 2-0. The seventh saw Marin add on some more as Christian Merriwether was hit by a pitch and stole second. He reached third on a ground out before Marcus Chiu was walked intentionally. Adam Hussain followed with an RBI groundout and Jakob Davidson followed with a run scoring double to make the score 4-0 in favor of the Mariners.
Jason Wutsch took over for Gardner in the eighth and allowed a pair of baserunners, but prevented Solano from breaking through. In the bottom half Davis walked, and Heimbroadt doubled before Merriwether lofted a sacrifice fly to score Marin's fifth run. Wutsch remained on the hill for the ninth and retired the side for Marin's 15th conference win of the season.
The victory gives Marin a three game lead over second place Los Medanos College with just three games to play in the regular season. The Mariners face Los Medanos three times in the final week of conference play, on Tuesday, April 25th at Los Medanos, before hosting the Mustangs on Thursday, April 27th. The final game of the season is Friday, April 28th, again at Los Medanos.