A familiar pattern has developed over the past four games for the College of Marin Baseball Team. Take a lead midway through the game, and then let it slip away late. Such was the case at Monterey on February 3rd and for the three games at Sequoias over the weekend. The second half of Marin's doubleheader on Saturday followed the pattern and resulted in a 4-2 loss to Sequoias.
Both teams failed to score until Marin took the lead in the top of the fourth. Marcus Chiu doubled to lead off and advanced to third on a fly out. He scored on a James Harwell sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead. After a scoreless bottom of the fourth, Sequoias broke through in the bottom of the fifth.
Two singles and a sacrifice bunt put runners at second and third with two outs. A hard ground ball could have ended the inning but it was mishandled which allowed both runners to come around and give Sequoias a 2-1 lead.
The Mariners wasted no time in tying the game as Alex Davis led off the sixth inning with a single, stole second and scored on Bryan Jakiemiec's RBI single. Marin had a chance to add on but Jakiemiec was caught stealing for the first out. Harwell followed with a walk and Nick Heimbroadt singled to put runners at the corners but he was caught stealing to end the threat. The Mariners had a runner on third with one out in the top of the third, but he was left stranded to end the inning.
Chrit Rudkin started for Marin and was excellent through the first six innings as he allowed a pair of unearned runs and seven hits. He ran into some trouble in the bottom of the seventh as Sequoias put a runner on third with two outs before Gabe Corona doubled in the go ahead run. Marin escaped the inning, but faced a one run deficit. The Mariners failed to score in the top half of the eighth inning, and Sequoias tacked on an insurance run from an RBI double to push the score to 4-2. Marin brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth but could do no more as Sequoias finished off the sweep.
Adam Hussain had two singles and Alex Davis had a pair of hits and scored a run in the losing effort.
After three close losses the Mariners record sits at 2-5, with a busy four game week ahead of them. Marin baseball travels to Diablo Valley College on Wednesday, February 15th before hosting Hartnell on Thursday and Folsom Lake on Friday. On Saturday Marin plays the return trip at Folsom Lake.