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Marlins Swept in Twin Bill with SwampDogs

July 31, 2014 - Coastal Plain League (Coastal Plain)
Morehead City Marlins News Release


MOREHEAD CITY N.C.- Morehead City was defeated in both ends of its doubleheader against Fayetteville on Thursday, dropping the first game 6-4 and the second game by a 2-1 score at Big Rock Stadium.

Kurt Lipscomb toed the rubber for the Marlins in game one, and ran into some early trouble as Fayetteville's first three batters all singled, with the third of those hits being Chase Edward's RBI base knock to give the Swampdogs an early lead. They would strike again in the frame on an RBI groundout from Norm Donkin.

Lipscomb pitched well after that until the seventh, striking out seven batters and allowing just two hits from the fourth batter of the game all the way through to the end of the sixth.

It was that seventh inning where he ran into the trouble that eventually spelled the loss for Morehead City. Lipscomb walked two in the inning - his only two walks of the day - and allowed three hits as Fayetteville touched him up for four runs in the inning, led by an RBI double from Chase Edwards.

Lipscomb ended up lasting 6.1 innings and surrendered a season-high six runs in what was his sixth start of the season.

Entering the seventh inning, the Faulkner right-hander was in line to be the victor in the game. The Marlins had spotted him four runs, including three in the third inning. In that third, five Marlins batters recorded hits, including Nick Lombardi, who took starter Bennett Schiltz deep for the second time this season with a solo homer to left. They tacked on the fourth run of the day in the fourth when Chastin Radford singled to allow Andrew Amaro to score after he had successfully stolen second and third.

Lombardi finished 2-for-3 with his third homer of the year, Radford was 2-for-4 with an RBI, run and stolen base, Alex Torres had two hits in four trips and Jacob Bruce finished with a couple of hits and a stolen base. Bruce also pitched in the game - throwing two thirds of an inning on one pitch with the help of a ground ball double play.

In the second game, Tyler Thorne pitched extremely well for Morehead City, allowing just two runs in the third inning as he worked five innings of two-run ball with three strikeouts.

"Thorne has been great all summer long," said head coach Sam Carel. "He has been kind of on the short end of some run support throughout the summer but he did another great job tonight."

His run support on Thursday consisted of just one run, an RBI infield hit from Lombardi in the second inning. The Marlins had nine hits in the game but stranded ten men on base.

"We left to many runners on base," Carel said. "We just did not come up with the clutch hit tonight."

Lombardi had two hits in the nightcap, as did Jacob Bruce, who now has 14 multi-hit games this year to lead the team. Bruce also made his way back to the mound in game two, coming on for the sixth and seventh, and working three-up, three down innings in both with a couple strikeouts.

"It was a 2-1 game and he threw well in the first game," Carel said. "We felt confident that in a 2-1 game he would give us a chance to come out and get a walk off win."

Overall, Bruce finished the night with 2.2 perfect innings, his first innings pitched at any level since the fall season at Kennesaw State.

"I was really excited to pitch," Bruce said. "I hadn't done it in a while and then only throwing one pitch was disappointing but [coach Carel] said I would pitch either later tonight or this weekend. [My plan was to] just throw strikes."

The losses for Morehead now put them 11 games under .500, as they continue to fall in the CPL East standings. They have lost six straight for the first time since June 11-16.

"At the end of the day, this three game series came down to us not doing a good job finishing things out," Carel said. " It was obvious in the first two games, but in the third game with reference to [not] coming up with the big hit in each inning."

The Marlins will hit the road Friday against the Edenton Steamers, before returning home for a doubleheader with those Steamers on Saturday. First pitch on Friday from Hicks Field is at 7:05.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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