The Motorboaters fell 7-6 Saturday night, as a valiant five run comeback in the eighth inning would not be enough to fend off a Sharks walk off win. Joe Sperone got the start for the Sharks and got out of the inning after giving up a single to Phillip Bernstein (Richmond) with two outs. Jack Eshleman (Hamilton College) got the start on the bump for the Motorboaters. After Eshleman got the first two outs in the inning, Owen Petrich launched a ball over the high fence in left field for a laser home run to put the Sharks up 1-0. Sperone found his groove with a dazzling changeup to catch the Motorboaters off stride as this would be the start of three straight 1-2-3 innings from the second through the fourth innings.
The fourth inning spelled trouble for Eshleman as he would allow three runs in the inning. Luke Nowak and Petrich singled back-to-back to start the inning before Eshleman got two quick outs. With two outs, a Carson Villalta two RBI single pushed the lead to 3-0 and Stephen DiTomaso followed up with an RBI base hit of his own to propel the score to 4-0.
Eshleman would finish his day giving up four runs on five hits and striking out three Sharks.
In the bottom of the fifth against Sperone, McGwire Tuffy (Quinnipiac) walked to get on base for Scotty Young (Rutgers), who slashed a single into the left field pasture to score Tuffy for a 4-1 ballgame. The Sharks would threaten again against Ryan Devanney (Sacred Heart) with the bases loaded and two out, but Devanney would get out of a jam by inducing an Alec Gonzalez pop out to Evan Scavotto (Portland) for the third out in the inning.
Kaden Segel (Portland) would enter in the seventh inning and surrender back-to-back base hits to Nowak and Petrich with one out. Case Kermode came up with two out and runners on the corners and dumped a single into left field to score Nowak for a 5-1 game before Kermode turned on the jets and got nabbed at second base trying to stretch a single into a double for the third out in the frame.
Down four runs to start the top of the eighth, the Motorboaters found the magic as they brought five runs across in the inning. After a walk and two hits would load the bases, Bernstein would come through with an RBI single into right field to propel the score to 5-2. Tauken walked with the bases loaded to score the third run of the night for the fightin’ Boaters, and Scavotto knocked in Nate Anderson (Gardner-Webb) on a 6-5 fielder’s choice that wiped Bernstein off the basepaths for out number two. With two runners on, Tuffy knocked a single to left that Connor Powell could not make a play on cleanly, and two runs came across on the Powell error. The second of two runs on the Tuffy single and Powell error was the equalizer, and that would propel the Motorboaters to a 6-5 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth against Motorboater hurler Nick McCollum (Georgia Southwestern State), DiTomaso was hit by a pitch before a Powell single to center would prove to be what the doctor ordered for the Sharks. DiTomaso would come around to score to tie the game at 6-6.
The Motorboaters could not push across a run in the ninth frame and gave way to Hunter Stevens (Mount Olive) in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs and the bases loaded, Ethan Wilder dumped a single into right field and was thrown into the celebration rounding first as he set off the first round of fireworks into the Wilmington night sky by playing the part of the hero for the Sharks as they walked it off to a 7-6 victory in the bottom of the ninth.
With the loss, the Motorboaters drop to 10-4 and the Sharks improve to 9-7. The Marlins head back home to Big Rock Stadium on Sunday as they face the Peninsula Pilots. First pitch is scheduled for 6PM. The game will be streamed live in Flo Sports.