Sports Briefs: Ninth-inning rally lifts Mariners on road

Nine unearned runs in the top of the ninth inning pushed College of Marin baseball past Butte College, 19-14, on Thursday to start a three-game series in Oroville. The Mariners took advantage of four Roadrunner errors in the ninth inning to rally from a four-run deficit. Sam Schnitzer pitched the bottom half of the inning, with two strikeouts among five batters faced for the win.

Adrian Ruiz doubled, tripled, scored twice and drove in four runs for the Mariners. Ben Sebastiani and Andrew Gamble both had two hits, including a triple, to score three times and add two RBIs. Patrick Kozielec had four hits with two runs and two RBIs, while Aiden Romero had three hits with a double to score twice and add three RBIs.

The Mariners (2-3) and Roadrunners are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday.

Girls soccer

Reese Goodenough found the back of the net four times to lead Marin Academy to a 6-0 win against San Domenico (5-8-0, 0-7-0 BCL West) on Thursday.

Skye Sacerdoti added a goal and an assist for MA (13-2-2, 7-0-2).Steph Zola had the other goal while Stina Mackay, Sadie Goodenough, Tatum Colpitts, and Isabel Meckler each had an assist.

Girls basketball

Marin Academy dropped a tough 40-29 contest to top-seeded University in Thursday’s BCL semifinals at Kezar Pavilion. The sharp-shooting Red Devils (19-9) took a seven-point lead into the break over the No. 4 Wildcats (15-12), who struggled with a slow start. Sterling Colpitts put up 11 points and a strong defensive game to keep Marin Academy in striking range. Val Saeltzer added eight points for the Wildcats.

Marin Academy split the regular-season series with University, and was looking for some momentum after a 35-34 victory over the Red Devils on Jan. 31, despite losing the final three games of the regular season. Marin Academy now awaits the results of the North Coast Section seeding meeting on Sunday.

Basketball

The Branson School and Bulls boys basketball head coach Demetrius Roquemore are hosting a Middle School Basketball Skills Clinic, Feb. 18-19, from 10 a.m. to noon. The clinic is open to boys and girls in grades 6-8. and focuses on foundational skill development, confidence-building, and basketball IQ. It’s led by Branson basketball coaches and players and is designed as a community resource for middle school athletes looking to grow their game. For more information, or to register, visit www.bransonsummer.org.

Youth sports

San Domenico boys basketball coach Tyler Gaffaney is launching “Bring Back Play”, a grass-roots push to keep pickup games and unstructured play a part of children’s lives. Gaffaney aims to launch Free Play Fridays in San Anselmo and Free Play Sundays in Novato in the Spring, hoping to offer unstructured activities for children in grades 4-8. Children who sign up at www.bringbackplay.org arrive for a 3-hour session of free play where they “run the show.”

Running

The Tamalpa Couples Relay is returning on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, at 9 a.m. Held 40 consecutive years (save one) from 1980, the race was paused during the pandemic and is now finally coming back.

The Couples Relay was originally organized by The Good Sport running store in then new Larkspur Landing (now Marin Country Mart). In the race’s unique format, women ran two miles then tagged off to their male partners. Some of the region’s most prominent runners won, including all-time fastest Dipsea Race performers Ron Elijah and Peggy Smyth, Marin County Athletic League 2-mile record holders Rod Berry and Robyn MacSwain (now married), and New Zealand Olympian Heather Thomson.

Later, Tamalpa Runners took over the race. The venue shifted to Novato’s Vintage Oaks shopping center, migrated back to Larkspur (including a couple of years running through the new SMART train tunnel) and is now back at Vintage Oaks. The 2026 course is a flat out-and-back on the traffic-free path bordering the SMART tracks on the east edge of the shopping center.

There are multiple categories; open, two females, two males, married, parent/grandparent with child/grandchild, youth, high school, and middle school. Prizes are based on combined ages, and most teams end up going home with an award. To learn more and register, visit http://www.tamalparunners.org/couplesrelays.

Reporting scores

Coaches are encouraged to report scores, stats and game details via email to sports@marinij.com or to @marinij_sports on Twitter following games. Anything that comes in after the deadline for print – around 8 p.m. typically – will be included the following day.