After a week and a half layoff, there was a fear that the Marin bats would stay silent. Such was luckily not the case on Tuesday as the Mariners rallied from a 5-1 deficit to defeat the Los Medanos Mustangs 8-7.
In the ninth, with Marin holding onto an 8-6 lead, Los Medanos put two on with two out. Jonathan Allen doubled to cut the lead to 8-7 and put runners on second and third. A hard ground ball to shortstop was not fielded and allowed the tying run to score. However, upon discussion between the umpires it was ruled that while on second, Allen interfered with Alex Davis' ability to make a play on the ball. He was ruled out for interference, which nullified the tying run and gave Marin the victory 8-7.
College of Marin fell behind early as the visitors from Los Medanos jumped on Marin starter Chrit Rudkin for four first inning runs. A walk, ground out, walk and single put one run on the board for LMC before another RBI single followed by a two run double gave them a 4-0 lead.
Marin started their comeback early, but were left wanting more in the first inning as they loaded the bases with no outs, but managed just one run on a Meyn based loaded walk. LMC Added their fifth run in the top of the fourth with a double and RBI single to push their advantage to 5-1. The Mariners scored their second run of the game in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of a single, error, sacrifice and RBI ground out. While they had ample opportunities, the big hit was elusive for the Mariners.
The home team's luck changed in the bottom of the fifth as the Mariners put runners on second and third with one out. Adam Hussain singled to drive in Jakob Davidson, and Peter Armusewicz followed with a run scoring single of his own to cut the LMC lead to 5-4. A groundout by Jake Munoz tied the game at five runs each.
After Los Medanos was retired in order in the top half of the sixth, Marin went back to work in the bottom half. Dominic Burke led off with a single before Marcus Chiu launched his third home run in consecutive games to give Marin a 7-5 lead. With two outs, MacLean Meyn followed suit with a four bagger of his own to push the Mariners advantage to three runs. Los Medanos pulled one back with a double and RBI single in the top of the seventh, but were held in check until the top of the ninth.
Chrit Rudkin gutted out six and two third innings pitched. While he allowed four first inning runs, he settled down nicely and allowed just two runs in the remainder of his time on the hill. Bret Bowyer pitched the final two a third innings for the save. Chiu was 3 for 5 with a home run and two RBI and Dominic Burke reached base four times and scored a pair of runs.
Marin plays again on Wednesday, March 8th at Folsom Lake College.