Buffalo Bison 11, Charlotte Knights 4
The Charlotte Knights stumbled to an 11-4 loss to the Buffalo Bisons in a game that remained competitive for five innings before spiraling wildly out of control.
Adisyn Coffey took the mound as an opener for Charlotte, making just his third start of the season. It quickly became the Lenyn Sosa revenge game. The former White Sox infielder greeted Coffey with a leadoff solo shot in the top of the third. Coffey retired the next two hitters, but a single and an RBI
double followed, giving Buffalo a 2-0 edge.
The Knights answered in the bottom half of the inning. Rikuu Nishida drew a two-out walk, and Riley Unroe brought him home with a triple to trim the deficit to one.
After Peyton Pallette got the final out of the third inning, Huascar Brazobán followed Coffey and turned in a successful inning of rehab work, surrendering only one hit in a scoreless fourth. Tanner McDougal took over in the fifth and faced the minimum, setting the stage for Charlotte to pull even in the bottom half when Junior Perez launched a solo shot to knot the score at 2-2.
Unfortunately, that was as good as the night would get for the Knights.
After cruising through the fifth, McDougal got into a heap of trouble in the sixth. A walk, a single, an RBI double by Sosa and another base hit pushed the Bisons ahead, 5-2. With one out and the sacks packed, Jairo Iriarte entered to try to limit the damage.
No dice.
Iriarte surrendered a run-scoring single that made it 6-2, although he recovered to strike out the next two batters and finally end the mess.
Buffalo put the game well out of reach in the seventh, scoring four unearned runs to stretch its advantage to 10-2. Apparently deciding an eight-run lead was not quite enough, the Bisons tacked on another tally when Chad Pinder put in shortstop Jason Matthews in the eighth for fun. Matthews also pitched the ninth and, despite hitting a batter and surrendering a double, he didn’t give up a run.
The Knights managed to push across two runs in the bottom of the eighth with the assistance of four walks and a ground out, but the game was way over by then. Charlotte could not generate anything further, settling for an ugly 11-4 defeat.
MVP
Junior Perez: 1-for-4, R, RBI, HR, 2 K
Runners-Up
Riley Unroe:1-for-2, RBI, 2 BB, 3B
Tim Elko: 1-for-3, 2B, BB, K
Huascar Brazobán: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K
Cold Cat
Tanner McDougal: 1 1/3 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 BB, K, L
Runners-Up
Adisyn Coffey: 2 2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, K
Jake Cave: 0-for-4, 4 K
Knoxville Smokies 4, Birmingham Barons 1
The Barons’ offense remained silent for most of the night, and a late rally fell well short in a loss to the Smokies.
Juan Carela matched Knoxville zero for zero through the first four innings as the game developed into an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel. The Smokies finally broke the stalemate in the fifth, using a single, a ground out and another single to grab a 1-0 lead.
That was the only damage against Carela. The righthander delivered five strong innings, allowing one run on three hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
Birmingham had its best opportunity to answer in the bottom of the fifth. Calvin Harris opened the frame with a one-out single, but Jacob Burke followed by grounding into a force out that erased Harris at second. Dylan Campbell then delivered the Barons’ only extra-base hit of the night, a double that moved Burke to third, and Caleb Bonemer worked a four-pitch walk to load the bases.
Unfortunately, Alec Briley grounded out, and Birmingham came away empty-handed.
Jackson Kelley took over in the sixth and retired the side in order, but things unraveled during his next inning of work. The Smokies tagged him for two runs on four hits and a walk, stretching their advantage to 3-0.
Garrett Wright surrendered another tally in the ninth, leaving the Barons staring at a four-run deficit and three final outs to do something about it.
To their credit, they tried.
Ryan Burrowes and Samuel Zavala opened the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back walks, but José Colmenares struck out, and Harris flew out, leaving Birmingham down to its final out. Burke finally broke up the shutout with an RBI single, and Campbell worked a walk to keep the line moving. Bonemer couldn’t produce a miracle, though, grounding out to end the game.
MVP
Juan Carela: 5 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 5 K, L
Runners-Up
Jacob Burke: 1-for-4, RBI, K
Dylan Campbell: 1-for-4, BB, 2B, K
Ryan Burrowes: 1-for-2, R, 2 BB
Jonathan Clark: 1 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, K
Cold Cat
Jackson Kelley: 1 2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, BB, K
Runners-Up
Garrett Wright: 1 IP, 2 H, R, BB
Alec Briley: 0-for-4, 3 K
Colby Shelton: 0-for-4, 2 K
José Colmenares: 0-for-4, 3 K
