Outside of the Wilson Tobs, no team will play the Greenville Yard Gnomes more in the 2024 regular season than the Morehead City Marlins.

The team from Carteret County is certainly looking forward to the next 10 matchups after their performance on Thursday night in Greenville.

Morehead City (3-2), fresh off of a 9-7 win over Wilmington the night prior at Big Rock Stadium, led 5-0 after the first three innings on Thursday evening at Guy Smith Stadium in Greenville behind strong production out of the gates by Nick Serce (American International College, 2-5, 2 RBI) who lifted a two-run shot over the right field fence in the top of the first inning.

Serce, who went long twice in total this spring for the Yellow Jackets, has already matched that total in the first week of the 2024 Coastal Plain League season as his homer on Thursday followed one from Wednesday in his team’s win over Wilmington.

In the second inning, the Marlins added two more runs behind RBIs from Josh Mason (Pitt Community College) and Kamau Neighbors (Cal State Northridge, 1-4, RBI, two walks), the latter of whom made his season debut for Morehead City after an impressive spring on the West Coast (.305 with 61 hits and 29 RBIs for the Matadors).

A Tommy Kendrick (Felician University) sac fly in the third frame padded the visitors’ lead to 5-0, an advantage that held up until Greenville got their lone production of the night in the fourth inning.

William Maginnis (Georgia State commit, 2-4) singled in the fourth and was later tripled in by Mason Staz (Barton College, 1-3, RBI) who recorded not only his first three bag effort of the season but also injected a much-needed bolt of energy into the Yard Gnomes who fell 8-0 to the Tobs on Tuesday night in Wilson.

It would be all Morehead City the rest of the way, however, as the Marlins tacked on a run in the sixth and seventh and went on to win by five.

Kayden Crawford (Lenoir Community College, 2-4 with an RBI) had a sacrifice fly in the sixth and in the seventh it was Kamau Neighbors who again impressed with a score from third base off of a Greenville pitcher balk.

RHP Ryan Bailey (Alfred State University) got the start on Thursday night for Morehead City and logged five innings with run support from his bats en route to a final line of 5.0 IP, two runs (both earned), seven hits and five strikeouts. Bailey picked up the win to move to 1-1 on the season.

Every Marlin arm recorded at least one strikeout as righties Joe Miceli (Kent State University) and Josh Plisko (Methodist University) garnered three and one punchouts respectively.

For Greenville, lefty Kyle Snyder (Highland Community College) took the loss as he made his second start of the season following four innings last Friday (May 24^th) in the Yard Gnomes’ home opener. Snyder logged two and one third on Thursday but gave up four earned runs and two walks against one strikeout.

The bright spot of the night for the home team on the mound was from freshman RHP Matthew Jenkins (Santa Fe) who rang up three in an inning of work in his second appearance of the season.

Greenville (1-6) will trade off with Morehead City tomorrow night as the Yard Gnomes will make the hour and a half drive east to the Crystal Coast to play the Marlins at Big Rock Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 PM.

NOTES: Total game time was two hours and fifty-seven minutes.