MOREHEAD CITY, NC – The Morehead city marlins lost a heartbreaking game to the Florence Flamingos on Saturday night, as the final score was 14-10 in the last game of the first half of the CPL season. 

Devyn Terbrak (Western Kentucky) made his debut for the Marlins and finished his day giving up four runs and four hits, while pitching 2.2 innings.

The Flamingo offense got started with a bang when Jake Ogden came in to score on a beautifully executed double steal. Nick Marinconz then pelted a ball over the left field wall for a 4-0 lead for the Flamingos after the first. With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom half of the inning for the Marlins, Dan Tauken (Albany) laced a single into the left field pasture to score Joseph Mershon (College of Charleston) and Trent Youngblood (Transylvania) to bring the score to 4-3 in favor of the Flamingos.

With two outs in the top of the third, Jacob Kroeger (Maryville) got into a bit of trouble as he allowed a single and a walk to set up Francisco Barbieri, who singled to score Marinconz and push the score to 5-3, but the Flamingos weren’t done yet. Ethan Harden doubled in two more Flamingos to push the score to 7-3 in the top of the third.

The Marlin offense went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the third before Brock Gillis came in in relief in the fourth inning. The Flamingos would push across another run on a Carson Garner walk and two stolen bases. He would come around to score on a Gillis wild pitch and push the score to 8-3.

Evan Scavotto (Portland) would find the power in the bottom of the fourth inning, sending a solo home run just over the wall for his first home run of the season to inch a run closer 8-4, but Florence starter Quinn Holt would strand the bases loaded full of Marlins to end the threat.

Gillis stayed in for the beginning of the fifth inning and he forced one out but a walk and stolen base from Barbieri who was then scored in by Harden on a double and a Riley Davis walk would put an end to his day. Joe Miceli (Gardner-Webb) came in and faced five batters but was only able to force one out. Ogden singled to score Harden, and Alex Rodgers quickly followed by smacking a single to score Davis. Carson Garner doubled to score Ogden and Rodgers, followed by Reid Brown single to Garner and make the score 14-3. Miceli forced a flyout for the second out, as Ty Bothwell (Indiana) took over and struck out Ethan Krizen swinging to put an end to the Flamingos six run inning.

Fantastic pitching from both sides in the bottom of the fifth and the top of the sixth put the Marlins bats up in the bottom of the sixth where Youngblood scored McGwire Tuffy (Quinnipiac) off of a base knock to bring the score to 14-4.

Bothwell pitched a one, two, three inning and pushed it to the bottom half of the seventh with the ten runs after seven innings run rule on the line. Will Walsh (Nebraska) started the Marlins off right with a lead off walk, followed by a Dan Tauken bomb out to right field to extend the game and make the score 14-6. After the home run, Evan Scavotto (Portland) singled, Tuffy reached first base on an error by the first baseman, and Shayne Campbell (Reinhardt) walked as that would lead to a pitching change for the Flamingos. Blake Priest came in for Daniel Barcena and threw nine straight balls as he walked the first three batters he saw, scoring three runs for the Marlins. Morehead City wasn’t done yet as the bases were loaded with one out as Walsh smacked an RBI groundout to score Scotty Young (Rutgers) and make the score 14-10 before Tauken struck out to end the magical inning.

The chance at a comeback as the Marlins had outstanding pitching, but so did the Flamingos as they closed the game out allowing just one hit and no runs in the eighth before CJ Hood pitched a three up, three down bottom of the ninth to halt the Marlins to a 14-10 loss.

The Marlins finished their first half of the Coastal Plain League season at 21-8 overall and 16-8 in CPL play. Morehead City will open up the second half of the season as they take on the Wilmington Sharks Sunday night at Buck Hardee Field at Legion Stadium in Wilmington, NC with a  7 PM first pitch.