After much hype, the Mariners 2018 season began on Friday afternoon with a resounding 14-1 win over the Wolverines of Sierra College. Marin scored early and scored often, taking a 9-1 lead after three full innings of play. They added on five more late, while keeping the visitors at bay and finished the game clean for the blowout win.
Marin loaded the bases in the bottom of the first with a hit batter and two walks. James Harwell drove in Dominic Burke with a based loaded before Owen Hamilton lined a single that cleared the bases with help from a Sierra fielding error. Sierra pulled one back in the top of the third with a double walk and sacrifice fly to make the score 4-1.
The bottom of the third was all Marin as they began the inning with a hit by pitch and a single. Harwell knocked an RBI single and Randy Fernandez loaded the bases with a single of his own. Christian Merriwether lined a two run single and Dominic Burke followed with a two out two run single of his own to put the Mariners up 9-1.
Chris Allen started for Marin and pitched into the sixth inning. After yielding a leadoff single he was relieved by Michael Benz. Benz loaded the bases, but escaped unscathed. He followed with two more scoreless innings to get Marin through top of the eighth.
The Mariners tacked on five more in the bottom half of the eighth with the big blow a two run double off the bat of Alex Davis.
Ryan Moyer entered to pitch the ninth inning and while he yielded three walks, he settled down to strike out a pair and end the game for the Mariners.
Burke and Harwell each had three RBI on the evening for Marin while Alex Davis had a pair of hits and two RBI for the Mariners.
Next up for Marin is a home game against Cabrillo College on Tuesday, January 30th at 1:15pm. The game will be played at San Francisco State University.