The Homer Mariners varsity baseball team honored their nine senior baseball players before Monday’s game against Houston.  The Mariners defeated the Hawks 14-4.  Sheldon Hutt pitched five strong innings for the Mariners, earning the win.

The first inning told the story in this game, with the Hawks jumping out to an early lead with two runs in the top of the first, taking advantage of three hits and a pair of walks to score twice.  Second baseman Collin MacCampbell helped prevent the inning from being any worse with a fine diving catch of a bloop popup behind the mound.  

In the bottom of the first, the Mariners powered their way to an unbelievable 12 runs, batting all the way through the order two times. Center fielder Owen Delehanty led off with a walk and Homer never looked back, taking advantage of some Houston errors, more walks and five base hits. Wylie Donich drove in a pair of runs with a triple to center field and Brandon Beachy drove in a pair with a solid double.

After the first inning, the game settled down to a normal, fast paced game, with Homer setting down the Hawks 1-2-3 in three of the remaining five innings and allowing no more runs until Hutt tired in the fifth, with some walks and hit batters allowing two more runs for Houston. JJ Sonnen pitched a scoreless 6th for Homer.

Needing just a run to win the game by the 10-run rule in the sixth, Evan Boyer led off with a base hit. Patrick Rainwater followed with fine bunt base hit.  The throw to first was wild and headed down the right field line, allowing Boyer to power his way all the way around the bases for the game winning run, earning Rainwater a game-winning RBI.

Senior Owen Delehanty said, “It was good to win on senior night and to score a lot of runs.  Sheldon pitched well and Collin made a good catch in the first inning.  We had good defense.  The outlook is good for the rest of the season if we keep getting runs.”

Mariner seniors are JJ Sonnen, Wylie Donich, Brandon Beachy, Sheldon Hutt, Paul Trowbridge, Evan Boyer, Owen Delehanty, Patrick Rainwater and Collin MacCampbell.

JV also won over Houston by the 10-run rule, 20-1.  “Douglas Dean’s pitching was on spot,” said James Webber.  “We really got the bats going, including an inside the park homerun by Garrett Butcher.”

Next up for the Mariners is a Thursday road trip to Kenai followed by home games on Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season before regional tournament play.