College of Marin Baseball fell to the Los Medanos Mustangs in the final game of the season, but with postseason already secured, it was by no means a heartbreaking loss. Dominic Burke started for the Mariners and was saddled with the loss as Marin held an early lead before Los Medanos rallied to take the game.
The Mariners broke through in the bottom of the first inning as Jake Munoz led off with a walk, moved to second on a ground out and scored on a double by James Harwell for a 1-0 lead. They doubled their advantage in the second inning as Will Langan and Randy Fernandez each walked with two outs. Munoz lined a single to the outfield that scored Langan for a 2-0 Mariners lead.
Dominic Burke did well on the hill in the early going as he retired the first 11 batters he faced until yielding a pair of singles with two out in the top of the fourth. He avoided any runs in the fourth but Los Medanos rallied in the top of the fifth.
The Mustangs put runners on the corners with one out in the fifth before a safety squeeze brought home the first run of the game for Los Medanos. The next batter tripled to tie the game up at 2-2. The Mariners had a runner on in the bottom half but could not score.
The game unraveled a bit in the top of the sixth as the Mustangs started to beat up on the Mariners. The first two batters singled before Los Medanos took the lead on a sacrifice bunt. After a popup for the second out of the inning, a fielding error yielded the Mustang's fourth run of the game. A single and hit by pitch loaded the bases before two singles plated another three runs to give Los Medanos a 7-2 lead.
Marin failed to score in the sixth but managed to pull a few runs back in the seventh. Fernandez and Munoz walked with one out for Christian Merriwether who lined a double to the gap scoring two and cutting the lead to 7-4.
Los Medanos answered back with two in the top of the eighth as they combined a two out single, double and single to push their lead to 9-4 which they maintained through the end of the game.
Munoz had a single, an RBI and two runs scored on the day while Merriwether had two hits including a double and two RBI on the day.
The Mariners have a week of practice before hosting the College of San Mateo Bulldogs in the first round of the NorCal Playoffs. The playoffs begin on Friday, May 4th at Laney College.