Gwinnett Stripers 4, Charlotte Knights 2
After a 3-1 victory on Tuesday, the Knights (72-62) offense had a rough night in Gwinnett against the Stripers (68-65), and the series is tied.
Knights starter Drew Thorpe, 25, had a solid start, only allowing two runs on four hits in five innings. However, in this game, the Knights needed a fantastic start to have a chance. Thorpe allowed a solo homer in the second, and the Stripers picked up their second run on an infield grounder in the fourth.
When Thorpe’s
outing was over, the Knights trailed by a score of 2-1. The Knights picked up their first run in the fourth, when Rikuu Nishida singled to lead off the inning. With one out, Kyle Teel and Michael Turner added back-to-back singles to put the Knights on the board.
In the sixth, August’s Knight of the Month Riley Unroe led off with a single. Nishida laid down a bunt, and after an error, Charlotte had two on with nobody out. From there, Junior Perez also bunted, and the sacrifice advanced Unroe and Nishida 90 feet. Suddenly, the Knights had two in scoring position with one out, and Teel was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Turner picked up his second RBI with a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
However, the Stripers picked up two runs on three hits against Knights reliever Aidan Anderson in the seventh to retake the lead. The Knights came up empty down the stretch at the plate, so the Stripers held on.
MVP
Rikuu Nishida (2B): 2-for-3
Runners-Up
Michael Turner (1B): 1-for-3, 2 RBI
Drew Thorpe (RHSP): 5 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 K
Huascar Brazobán (RHRP): 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K
Cold Cat
Aidan Anderson (RHRP): 2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 2 K
Cold Cat Runners-Up
Korey Lee (DH): 0-for-3, K, GIDP
Caden Connor (LF): 0-for-4, 1 K
Junior Perez (CF): 0-for-3, K, GIDP
Jason Matthews (3B): 0-for-2, 2 K
Biloxi Shuckers 6, Birmingham Barons 5 (10 innings)
The Barons (55-73) let this one slip away, as they failed to protect a slim lead against the Shuckers (61-63) in Biloxi.
Biloxi got started early on against Barons starter Connor McCullough. The Shuckers started with a triple, a sacrifice fly, and a solo homer to take an early 2-0 lead against McCullough, 26. However, the Barons did not stay behind for long. In the third, Jorge Corona, who made a sizable impact in August, launched a homer to trim the deficit in half. Two batters later, Minor League Player of the Month Samuel Zavala was hit by a pitch, as he found another way to reach base safely. From there, Dylan Campbell crushed a game-tying double that drove Zavala in. Campbell proceeded to steal third, and Caleb Bonemer hit a sacrifice fly to put Birmingham ahead.
In the fifth, stop me if you have heard this before, but Corona went deep. That blast was Corona’s 10th in 55 games with the Barons. After Corona’s second homer of the game, Zavala reached base again, singling to left before stealing second. Two batters later, with two outs, Bonemer hit a soft grounder for an infield single, and baseball’s top prospect, Jesús Made, made an error that allowed Zavala to score. After Birmingham was retired in the top of the fifth, the score was 5-2.
The Shuckers scored their third and final run against McCullough in the fifth, when Damon Keith hit a solo homer to pull Biloxi back within two. McCullough finished with three runs allowed on four hits in five innings.
The Shuckers picked up one run in the sixth, but the score remained 5-4 until the bottom of the ninth, when Jonathan Clark took over on the mound. With two outs and nobody on, Mike Boeve extended the game by drawing a six-pitch walk. Pinch-runner Dylan O’Rae picked up his 55th stolen base, and Dylan Keith drove him in to force the game into extras. The Barons came up empty in the top of the 10th, and Made came through with a walk-off single for the Shuckers.
MVP
Jorge Corona (C): 3-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI
Runners-Up
Dylan Campbell (RF): 1-for-5, 2B, RBI, 1-for-1 stolen bases
Samuel Zavala (LF): 1-for-3, HBP, 1-for-1 stolen bases
Caleb Bonemer (CF): 1-for-3, RBI, BB
Mathias LaCombe (RHRP): 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K
Cold Cat
Alec Briley (3B): 0-for-5
Cold Cat Runners-Up
Colby Shelton (DH): 0-for-4, GIDP
Ryan Burrowes (SS): 0-for-3, K, BB
David Colmenares (2B): 0-for-3, 2 K
Jonathan Clark (RHRP): 1 2/3 IP, 2 R (1 ER), 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K
Connor McCullough (RHSP): 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 K
Winston-Salem Dash 8, Rome Emperors 6 (12 innings)
In a roller coaster of a game, the Dash (71-56) came out on top of the Emperors (59-66).
The Dash put themselves on the board first, when Javier Mogollón, the game’s second batter, launched a solo homer. The Dash doubled their lead in the third, when Jackson Appel led off with his first home run in 18 games with Winston-Salem.
The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when the Emperors finally got on the scoreboard. With runners on first and second with one out, a throwing error by Dash starter Dylan Carmouche allowed both runners to score. That tied the game at two, and it was the only blemish on Carmouche’s stat line. Carmouche, 25, allowed zero earned runs on three hits in five innings, but he allowed two unearned runs on his error.
The teams traded runs in the sixth, which began when Mogollón led off with a single before he stole second. Kyle Lodise followed that good start with an RBI single to put the Dash back in front. However, in the bottom half, Dash reliever Jake Curtis did not have an easy time. After allowing a leadoff double, Curtis got a strikeout, but an RBI double by Will Verdung tied the game at three.
Nobody scored in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, so the game headed into the 10th. With two outs in the top of the 10th, Lodise made sure that the Dash picked up a run, as his double drove in the free runner. In the bottom half, Dash reliever Carlton Perkins got into trouble with a hit by pitch and a walk to load the bases with no outs. However, after a double play that allowed the free runner to score, a strikeout ended the inning, so the Dash managed to extend the game to the 11th.
A leadoff single by Jeral Perez put the Dash ahead in the 11th, and Perez advanced to second on the throw home. As a result, when James Taussig followed with a single, Perez managed to score to put the Dash ahead by a pair. However, the bottom half was not a walk in the park. An error by Lodise resulted in the Emperors having runners on the corners with no outs. After a stolen base, the potential tying run was in scoring position with no outs. After a productive ground out and a late throw home on a grounder to second, it was a tie game once again.
In the 12th, the Dash finally put the game away. Derek Cerda was hit by a pitch, and Ely Brown was next to bat. Brown laid down a bunt, and after a throwing error, the free runner (Appel) and Cerda scored. Dash reliever Drew Conover got the job done in the bottom half by not even allowing Rome’s free runner to score.
MVP
Javier Mogollón (2B-3B): 2-for-5, HR, RBI, 1-for-1 stolen bases
Runners-Up
Kyle Lodise (SS): 2-for-5, 2 RBI, BB, 2-for-2 stolen bases
Dylan Carmouche (LHSP): 5 IP, 2 R (0 ER), 3 H, 1 BB, 4 K
Drew Conover (RHRP): 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K
Jackson Appel (C): 1-for-5, HR
Cold Cat
George Wolkow (RF): 0-for-5, 5 K, HBP
Cold Cat Runners-Up
James Taussig (DH): 1-for-5, RBI, 4 K
Jake Curtis (RHRP): 2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K
Jeral Perez (3B): 1-for-5, RBI, fielding error
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 9, Delmarva Shorebirds 8
The Cannon Ballers (68-60) nearly suffered their biggest meltdown of the season, but they escaped in a thriller against the Shorebirds (44-84).
Cannon Ballers starter Truman Pauley, 22, tapped into his potential with an excellent performance against Delmarva. Pauley only allowed one run on five hits in five innings, picking up 11 strikeouts along the way. When Pauley’s outstanding start was over, the Cannon Ballers had a 7-1 lead.
The Cannon Ballers scored two in the second, three in the third, and two in the fifth. In the second, the big hit was a two-run single by Clay Burdette. In the third, Stiven Flores hit an RBI single, and Kannapolis also scored on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Grayson Fitzwater. The big hit in the fifth was a two-run blast by Fitzwater that extended the Kannapolis lead to six.
The score remained 7-1 until the top of the ninth, when the wheels fell off. Reliever Nick Weyrich entered the game and issued three consecutive walks. Weyrich temporarily stopped the bleeding with a strikeout, but a two-run double was enough to chase him from the game. Ryan Schiefer took over on the mound, and after a single, a hit by pitch, and a walk, his outing was over, too. Grant Cleavinger inherited the bases loaded, one out, and the lead was down to two. After a walk and a double, incredibly, Delmarva had an 8-7 lead. Unbelievable.
However, the game was not over. Abraham Núñez reached on an error to open the bottom of the ninth, and suddenly, the Cannon Ballers had life again. Although Stiven Flores flew out, Braden Holcomb singled to put runners at the corners with one out. From there, Fitzwater picked up another big hit, as his double drove in the tying run and put the potential winning run at third. That set the stage for Burdette, who hit a walk-off sacrifice fly. Wow.
MVP
Grayson Fitzwater (1B): 2-for-2, HR, 2B, 4 RBI, 2 BB
Runners-Up
Truman Pauley (RHSP): 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 11 K
Stiven Flores (C): 3-for-5, RBI
Braden Holcomb (LF): 3-for-4, 3B, HBP
Clay Burdette (DH): 1-for-3, 3 RBI, BB
Frankeli Arias (RHRP): 3 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K
Cold Cat
Nick Weyrich (RHRP): 1/3 IP, 4 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 1 K
Cold Cat Runners-Up
Ryan Schiefer (RHRP): 0 IP, 3 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, HBP, 0 K
Matthew Boughton (SS): 0-for-4, K, HBP, GIDP
Jake Berkland (2B): 0-for-4, K, GIDP
