College of Marin Baseball turned it up to 11 on Thursday. They defeated the Napa Valley Storm 6-5 to run their winning streak to 11 in a row, and remained undefeated at 8-0 in Bay Valley Conference play. Christian Merriwether and Davis Barkocy were the offenses starters for the Mariners, who took an early lead and held off the Storm for the victory.
Mairn went down in order to begin the game and Jason Wutsch took the hill in the bottom half of the first inning. Napa put runners on the corners with no outs before an RBI single scored the first run of the game. Wutsch did a good job of wiggling out of trouble as a caught stealing and two strikeouts kept the Napa lead at just 1-0.
Both teams failed to score in the second inning, but the Mariners made up for it in the third. Barkocy singled and Dominic Burke walked to start the inning. After a strikeout, Merriwether singled in Barkocy to tie the game at 1-1. Jake Munoz followed with a sacrifice fly and after a walk to Alex Davis, Adam Hussain cleared the bases with a booming triple for a 4-1 Mariners lead.
The Storm weathered the Mariners onslaught, and fought back in the bottom of the third. Napa loaded the bases with no outs against Wutsch. The Mariners' hurler induced a pop out for the first of the inning, but yielded a two run double to cut their lead to just 4-3.
The score remained the same until the top of the sixth when the Mariners built themselves a bit of insurance. Barkocy led off with a double and Burke walked. A ground out put runners at second and third for Merriwether who delivered a two run single to give Marin a 6-3 lead.
Napa responded in kind an inning later, as the Storm put runners on the corners with no outs. A sacrifice fly made the score 6-4 before a double and another sacrifice brought the game within a run at 6-5.
It was a nail biter for the final two innings as Marin was unable to score any further. Nick Roth took over to start the eighth and allowed a two out walk but no additional damage.
The ninth started out with a leadoff single. The Napa runner stole second and looked to advance to third as the throw sailed out of the infield. Christian Merriwether was the hero as he adeptly backed up the play and gunned down the runner at third. Roth struck out the next batter before allowing a hit by pitch with two gone. No fear nor intimidation for Roth as he struck out the final batter to save the Mariners 6-5 victory.
Owen Hamilton Earned the win in relief of Wutsch, while Roth racked up his ninth save of the season. Merriwether had two hits and three RBI while earning the key assist in the ninth. Davis Barkocy was three for three with a walk and two runs scored.
The Mariners look to complete the sweep of the Storm at Sonoma State University on Friday, March 30th.