Another Tuesday, and another Chris Allen gem. The College of Marin ace was brilliant against Solano College allowing just two hits in his second straight complete game shutout. He walked just one and struck out eight Falcons as the Mariner scored early and cruised to a 4-0 victory.
Marin built a lead even before Allen took the hill. Jake Munoz led off with a hit by pitch and moved to third on a fielding error that put Christian Merriwether at second. James Harwell followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Munoz and give Marin a 1-0 lead. Alex Davis grounded out to score Merriwether and double their advantage to 2-0.
Allen breezed through the first Solano batters he faced as he retired the side in order in the first, second and third innings.
Meanwhile the Mariners made more noise in the fourth inning as Adam Hussain led off with a double. He moved to third on a sacrifice bunt but remained at third with two away and Dominic Burke at first. Randy Fernandez hit a hot smash at the third baseman that was mishandled and allowed Hussain and Burke to score, granting the Mariners a 4-0 lead.
Allen retired the first two Solano batters in the fourth before allowing the first baserunner of the game, a single. He followed with a fly out to quell any notion of a rally by Solano. He mowed down the Falcons in the fifth and the sixth with three more strikeouts.
While the Mariners could not move on, the Falcons put together their biggest rally in the seventh. They worked a one out walk off of Allen and with two outs lined a single to right. The runner from first tried to go from first to third on the hit, but was gunned down by Munoz to end the inning.
Allen retired the side in the eighth and went one two three in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts to nail down the complete game victory.
Allen earned his 11th victory in 12 starts this season. He dropped his ERA to 0.84 and struck out eight more batters to increase his season total to 89. He leads the state in wins, and ERA and is currently third in strikeouts.
It was a balanced effort for the Mariners offensively as five different players had hits, four different scored runs and three had RBIs.
Next up for the Mariners is a home game against Solano College at Sonoma State on Thursday, April 19th.