College baseball: College of Marin misses out on title, eyes state playoffs
The College of Marin baseball team needed two wins this week to clinch at least a tie for the Bay Valley Conference title.
The Mariners, who have not captured the BVC title since 2018, still have not added a conference banner as Los Medanos finished off a three-game sweep Friday with a 16-3 thrashing of COM on a cool, overcast afternoon in Kentfield.
Los Medanos and Laney finished tied atop the final standings with identical 18-3 records. The Mariners (26-13-1, 16-5 BVC) finished a full two games behind.
All three teams, however, advance to next week’s California Community College baseball tournament. COM advances as an at-large selection based on its overall win total. The Mariners have advanced to the state tournament 28 consecutive seasons. The seeding meeting takes place on Sunday.
“We didn’t get that conference title, but I told the team after the game they should be proud of winning 26 games,” veteran COM coach Steve Berringer said. “I also told them a new season starts. It’s a tournament. Any team can win a tournament.”
This season is something of a mirror image of last season when the Mariners fell just short of the conference title but ended up winning a tournament opener in Lassen.
“These losses won’t affect us going forward,” said COM right fielder Derek Bartram, a 2022 Novato High grad who leads the team in runs batted in (46) and home runs (nine). “Sure, we wanted to win the championship but we didn’t so now we have to attack the playoffs and travel on the road like road warriors.”
The Mariners were at a disadvantage before the pivotal series against Los Medanos even started. Charles Veley, a 2024 Redwood grad and COM’s No. 1 starting pitcher, was sidelined by a tight back.
“Chaz (Veley) probably could have pitched today if we were still alive for the conference title,” Berringer said. “But under the circumstances, we decided to rest him until next week.”
Southpaw Logan Figlar, who had pitched only 14 innings all season, was hit hard in the first as the Mustangs slammed two doubles and a pair of singles to open a 3-0 lead.
Despite the rocky start, COM threatened to make it a game in the bottom half of the frame when Bartram lined a two-out single to left and clean-up hitter Caden Sta Maria blasted a 1-1 fastball over the fence in dead center field for a two-run homer.
“That was a big home run by Caden and it put us back into the game,” Berenger said. “But we needed a shutdown inning in the second and we didn’t get it.”
Instead, the Mustangs shut the door by scoring four more runs and chasing Figlar after 1.2 innings.
“We’re not getting the pitching we’re used to getting and it’s a little hard to start like that,” said Bartram, who is set to play baseball at University of Pacific in Stockton next year. “But we knew what we were getting into this week. Los Medanos is a very good hitting team.”
In fact, the Mustangs have three players hovering around a .400 batting average, including Smith Chandler, Daniel Polasek and Heeryun Han. That trio on Friday combined for seven hits — five for extra bases — and nine RBIs.
After Sta Maria’s home run, the Mariners did not score another run off Los Medanos starter Nathan Leffel, who pitched four full innings before making way for a parade of effective relief pitchers.
COM’s only other run came in the sixth when former Redwood standout Danil Wells smacked a two-out double down the left-field line and leadoff hitter Wyatt Davis plated him with a ground ball single to left.
Davis, a sophomore, will end his career as COM’s all-time leader in hits. Davis has accumulated 127 hits in his career heading into the state playoffs.