NATHAN DUARTE HITS WALK-OFF AS MARAUDERS SWEEP IMPERIAL VALLEY IN DOUBLEHEADER

PHOTOS by Byron Devers

AVC Baseball fell behind in the first contest as Imperial Valley had a three-run lead by the 4th inning. The Marauders were able to finally get going offensively when Nathan Duarte singled to center field, scoring Christian Garcia. Devin Rader then singled to center to bring Duarte home. 

The Marauders tied it up in the 6th inning after Braden Courter scored on a Nathan Hernandez base hit. 

The game, initially scheduled for 7-innings, would need an extra one to be decided as it would stay tied until the bottom of the 8th. Duarte then came up with two runners on. He homered to left field for the three-run walk-off, giving AVC the 6-3 win in game one. Duarte would finish 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, while Garcia went 3-for-3. Hernandez ended 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Game two would be a little closer, but it started similar to game one as Imperial Valley scored first. AVC fell behind early, giving up one run in the 1st inning and three runs in the 2nd inning. 

The Marauder defense stepped up for the rest of the game to keep Imperial Valley scoreless. Meanwhile, the offense heated up in the 4th inning as Frankie Linstrom singled to center to score Nathan Duarte. Nathan Brockbank then hit a sacrifice fly to score Mark Ribeiro. Daniel Guzman pulled the Marauders within a run with an RBI single, scoring Linstrom.

AVC would tie it at 4-4 when Braden Courter scored on an error by Imperial Valley. Nathan Duarte would then score on George Mercado's RBI single to shortstop to give the Marauders the go-ahead run. Both Frankie Linstrom and Nathan Duarte would finish 2-for-3 while Patrick Berry picked up the win on the mound.

The Marauders are now 2-2 and will play another home game against Taft on Monday at 2:00 pm.