Morehead City, NC – As all great streaks must eventually come to an end, so did the Motorboaters win streak on Friday night, as they lost to the Wilson Tobs 4-1. The loss snapped a streak of 12 consecutive wins, and they dropped to 13-3 on the season. In the first matchup of the season between the two teams, Shaun Gamelin (Rhode Island College) started for the Motorboaters against Trent Harris of the Tobs.
Wilson would get the action started early, as they would belt two solo home runs off of Gamelin in the first inning to take an early lead and never look back. With one out in the first inning, Patrick Fultz belted a home run over the wall in left field to take an early 1-0 lead, and following a strikeout of Sammy Sass, Garrett Anglim launched an equally impressive blast over the center field wall to take a 2-0 lead.
The Motorboater bats would go cold through the early innings, being sent down in order in the first two frames. Fultz continued his torrid night at the plate for the Tobs by following his home run with a double to begin the top of the third inning. Sass would single him for the Tobs to take a 3-0 lead with no outs, but Gamelin would bear down and receive some help from the Morehead City defense as Garrett Anglim hit a slicer in right center that would send Nate Anderson (Gardner-Webb) sprinting into the gap and summersaulting on to the warning track, as he held on to the ball and fired back to first to catch a befuddled Sass too far off the first base bag for a double play.
The Tobs would push another run across when Harrison Pontoli singled and advanced to second on a Gamelin error. Joe Miceli would come on in relief for Gamelin with two outs in the sixth, but would surrender a RBI single to Jack Rothenhausler to score Pontoli. This would give the Tobs a 4-0 lead.
Gamelin would finish his day with 5.2 innings pitched, giving up six hits and four runs. He walked one batter and struck out seven.
Tobs starter Trent Harris dazzled through six innings, giving up only five hits and no runs, showcasing his darting slider through the night
Kristian Asbury (Troy) would come on in relief of Miceli in the eighth inning for his season debut, and he looked superb, relying on his diving breaking pitches to fool Tobs hitters. Asbury went two innings, giving up no runs and punching out three Tobs in his debut.
The ninth had visions of a comeback as Braylin Marine (Newberry College) walked and came around to score on a Dan Tauken (Albany) RBI single to bring the score to 4-1, but that’s all the Motorboater bats could muster against the Tobs bullpen.
The loss for the Motorboaters is their first in 13 games and halts their season-long win streak at 12 games. They drop to 13-3 and hit the road to play their rival Wilmington Sharks on Saturday at Buck Hardee Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM. You can tune in to the game on the Morehead City Marlins Mixlr channel.