College of Marin Baseball bounced back from a disappointing week to clinch a spot in the State Tournament. The Mariners defeated the Los Medanos Mustangs 9-2 at home to assure themselves a finish above .500 in the 2019 season. Demian White turned in one of his finest performances of the year with six innings of shutout ball while Dionathan Cornet blasted his fourth homer of the season for Marin.
After a scoreless first inning for both teams, the Mariners got to work in the bottom of the second. Conor Bardue walked to lead off and Randy Fernandez followed with a single. Bardue was thrown out at third trying to steal before Cornet belted a pitch over the left field net for a two-run homer and a 2-0 Mariners' lead.
White was nearly perfect through the first four innings, allowing a lone walk while striking out three. His teammates responded with all the run support he would need in the bottom half of the fourth.
Fernandez led off with a single and stole second. Cornet singled to move Fernandez to third. Back to back errors by Los Medanos scored a pair for the Mariners. They reloaded the bases before Jacob Berg was hit by a pitch for Marin's fifth run. After a pitching change Anthony Pomilia lined an RBI single. Conor Bardue followed with a two-run single of his own before Fernandez lofted a sacrifice fly to put the Mariners into a commanding position with a 9-0 lead.
White kept the Mustangs hitless until one out in the sixth but managed to keep them off the board. He finished the day, allowing just one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. Nick Roth replaced White in the seventh and allowed back to back two out hits which plated Los Medanos' first run. Roth kept LMC scoreless in the eighth before Michael Benz pitched the ninth. He allowed a harmless run but finished out the ninth to insure Marin's 9-2 victory.
Cornet was the offensive hero with a home run, two hits, two RBI and two runs scored. Fernandez had two hits and two runs scored while Pomilia had two hits, a run and an RBI. White earned the victory in six scoreless innings.
The Mariners improved to 20-17 on the season with the victory. They will begin their 2019 playoff run either on Tuesday, April 30th or Friday, May 3rd.
