Although it was not the cleanest of games, the Mariners held on in the end to beat Diablo Valley College in Kentfield on Saturday. Ryan Schalch struck out Diablo Valley's Ryan Meisenheimer with the tying runs on base to end the threat and grab the Mariners' fourth win of the season. After falling to DVC on Tuesday in 10 innings, COM bounced back nicely taking an early 4-1 lead and continued to add on throughout the game.
Diablo Valley scored opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first and the score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the third. With two outs Marcus Chiu and Matt Tarantino singled. Schalch drove one to right that was misplayed allowing Chiu to score and Tarantino to advance to third. After Schalch stole second to put runners at second and third, catcher Jakob Davidson doubled down the left field line plating a pair. Davidson scored on an error to give College of Marin their fourth run of the inning and a 4-1 lead.
Diablo Valley scored twice in the top of the sixth with a two out RBI single off the bat of Drew Downing. The Mariners immediately responded with a pair of their own in the bottom half without the benefit of a hit. With one out Sam Schmidt was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After a walk to Jaymes Potts, Chris Norman reached on a fielder's choice loading the bases. With two outs Chris Hayman was hit by a pitch to score a run. Potts scored the second run of the inning on a wild pitch. DVC scored a single run in the top of the eighth with an RBI single by Downing. College of Marin added the insurance run back as Norman singled and scored on a fielding error for a 7-4 lead.
Schalch entered in the top of the ninth and yielded back to back lead off singles before getting a fly out and a strike out. Anthony Taliaferro singled scoring Diablo Valley's 5th run. Schalch struck out Meisenheimer to end the threat and the game.
Cooper Casad delivered a quality start for his first win of the season. He threw six innings yielding five hits three runs while striking out five DVC Vikings. The Mariners were a bit shaky on defense as they committed four errors, but helped atone by turning three double plays.
The Mariners play Monday, February 15th against CCSF at 1:00PM