Tuesday's baseball game between the Mariners and the Santa Rosa Bear Cubs saw both teams battle for nine innings. Santa Rosa battled just a bit harder in route to a 9-5 win over Marin. Santa Rosa scored early and often. While the Mariners did respond frequently, they could not muster the big hit that would propel them to victory. The Mariners scored five runs on five hits, but also committed five errors that led to a quartet of unearned runs in the four run loss.
After both teams failed to score in the first and second the visiting Bear Cubs broke the deadlock in the top of the third. A hit by pitch followed by a pair of one out errors by the Mariners gave Santa Rosa a 1-0 lead. An RBI groundout followed to double the Bear Cubs early advantage. They scored two more in the top of the fourth from a two out double and led the Mariners 4-0 heading to the bottom of the fourth.
The Mariners responded in the fourth with a two out two run bloop double by Freshman Joey Loveless. Bardue and Pomilia came around to score and cut Santa Rosa's lead to 4-2.
Santa Rosa answered back with another big two out hit, this time a triple that plated two and put the visitors back on top by four runs, 6-2.
The Mariners scored once in the fifth and twice more in the seventh to cut the lead to a single run. They loaded the bases with two outs and had a chance to tie or take the lead, but Nick Caravello grounded out to end the inning and the threat.
Santa Rosa proceeded to score two more runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to put the game away for a final of 9-5.
Trent Free started for the Mariners and allowed four runs (two earned) in 3.1 innings. Nick Kennison followed with 2.2 innings on the hill where he yielded a pair of unearned runs. Riley Cronin pitched 1.1 innings and allowed two runs and Jack Cottrell finished the game allowing a ninth inning run.
Loveless had three RBI for the Mariners while Pomilia drove in a pair and scored a run.
The loss was the Mariners sixth consecutive after opening the season with a victory. They host the Folsom Lake Falcons on Wednesday, February 5th at 2pm.
