College of Marin Baseball faced the Mendocino College Eagles in an extra inning affair for the second straight game. After grabbing a victory in 10 innings on Tuesday, the Mariners were less fortunate on Thursday as they dropped the matchup 6-4 in 12 nerve-racking innings. The visiting Eagles plated two runs in the 12th off of Mariners' reliever Ryan Moyer and the offense was unable to muster a rally in the bottom of half.
Mendocino got on the board early, with an RBI ground out in the top of the first inning. Marin did not trail for long as they put the first two batters of the inning on to start the first. Jacob Berg reached on an error and Anthony Pomilia singled to start the inning. Landen Moran following with a chopper that was bobbled by the Mendocino first baseman that allowed Berg to score. After a stolen base, Nicholas Caravello drove a sacrifice fly to center to score Pomilia and put Marin ahead 2-1.
Nicholas Roth started for the Mariners and allowed just one run through the first three innings with three strikeouts. He ran into trouble in the fourth with one down. A followed by a double tied the game at 2-2. With two outs and a runner on third, a wild pitch put the visitors ahead 3-2.
Marin did not rally immediately, but made noise in the bottom of the fifth. Pomilia led off with a double and scored as the next batter, Moran doubled him home for a 3-3 game. Both teams failed to score in the sixth and Roth kept the pressure on Mendocino with a scoreless top of the seventh.
In the bottom of the seventh it was Pomilia again, as he led off with a single and stole second. With two outs he came around to score on a single by Conor Bardue that put the Mariners on top 4-3.
Michael Benz relieved Roth to start the eighth and retired the side in order with two strikeouts and a fly out. The Mariners went down in order in the bottom half and it was up to Benz to save the game.
The first batter of the ninth shattered those hopes with a laser home run to tie the game up at 4-4. Benz worked his way out of the inning but the damage was done.
The Mariners were retired quickly in the bottom of the ninth.
Ryan Moyer took over in the tenth inning worked around a single and a walk to preserve the tie. He was perfect in the 11th as Marin could not muster any offense in bottom of the 10th.
Dionathan Cornet singled to led off the bottom of the 11th but again the Mariners failed to score. The 12th proved to be decisive in the game as Moyer, in his third inning of relief, but two on with one out. He got a strikeout, but then yielded a double that scored two for the Eagles.
Marin went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 12th as the game ended.
Pomilia had three hits and three runs cored for the Mariners while Bardue had two hits, a stolen base and an RBI on the day. Roth pitched seven innings for Marin and allowed three runs, and four hits while striking out seven. Benz gave up a run in two innings and Moyer was saddled with the loss, but struck out five in three innings of relief.
The loss was Marin's first in BVC play, they are 8-10 overall on the season.
They have little time to rest with a game against Napa Valley College on Friday, March 15th and another with Mendocino on Saturday, March 16th.