Charlotte Knights 5, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3
Shane Murphy, fresh off the bus from Birmingham, made it through three innings before he hit a spot of trouble in the fourth and fifth. The Jumbo Shrimp pecked him for three runs on eight hits, but just one went for extra bases. It wasn’t a meltdown, but hardly a coronation.
The Knights’ (17-17) bats arrived in the fifth. Ryan Galanie got plunked, taking one for the team, Caden Connor moved him to third, and Mario Camilletti’s sac fly knotted it up.
Then Josh Breaux uncorked the big blow, a two-run shot that gave Charlotte the lead.
Galanie tacked on insurance with a solo shot in the sixth, and the bullpen got the job done. Chris Murphy, Tyler Schweitzer, and Ben Peoples stitched together four scoreless, blanking Jacksonville the rest of the game.
Braden Montgomery got his first taste tonight, going 0-for-4 with a walk and two whiffs. He did have an outfield assist. Welcome to Triple-A, kid.
Knoxville Smokies 10, Birmingham Barons 4
This one got out of hand in a hurry. Starter Dylan Cummings never really found his footing, getting tagged for seven runs (six earned) over four innings. A pair of early bombs set the tone for the Smokies before a messy fourth — highlighted by a bases-loaded triple — really put Knoxville in command.
Birmingham (13-15) hit the snooze button through the early innings, but to their credit, they made a push in the sixth, stringing together some quality at-bats capped by a three-run double from Wilfred Veras and an RBI knock from Jeral Perez to cut it to 7-4. Unfortunately, that was the high-water mark. Knoxville answered right back with two more in the bottom half and tacked on another late, while the Barons’ bats went right back to sleep as they only mustered two more hits over the last three frames.
Winston-Salem Dash 6, Hudson Valley Renegades 1
The Dash (17-11) did what they’ve been doing all season — hit early and often. Winston-Salem wasted no time jumping on rehabbing Gerrit Cole, as Caleb Bonemer launched his 12th homer of the year in the first. Then a Colby Shelton double, and Anthony DePino single teamed up for another run and a quick 2-0 lead.
After Hudson Valley briefly answered, the Dash went right back to work, with Kyle Lodise leaving the yard in the fourth and the offense blowing things open in the fifth. Shelton laced another double, and DePino followed with a two-run shot. That was more than enough for starter Drew McDaniel, who turned in a crisp four innings with six strikeouts, and the bullpen handled the rest as Winston-Salem cruised the rest of the way.
Columbia Fireflies 7, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 2
Blaine Wynk breezed through the first couple of frames, then promptly sprang a leak for two runs in the third. The Fireflies kept poking holes as Gabriel Rodríguez allowed two more tallies in the middle innings, and suddenly, Colombia had a commanding lead.
The Ballers (10-18) finally flickered to life in the sixth, courtesy of Nathan Archer’s first bomb of the year, but the bats went right back to sleep. Whatever faint pulse remained flatlined in the ninth, as Columbia tacked on three more with a parade of dribblers, miscues, and general Ballers’ malaise. A few singles by Kanny and a wild pitch in the bottom half made the score look less embarrassing, but this one was over long before the last out.
ACL Reds 5, ACL White Sox 2 (May 4 — 7 innings)
The ACL White Sox (0-2) struck first but couldn’t keep a grip on it, falling to the ACL Reds. A sharp second inning did some early damage for the Sox, as Drake Logan’s leadoff double set the table for RBI knocks from Efren Teran and Osniel Castillo to make it 2-0. Still, things unraveled quickly in the bottom half when four walks and general loss of command by Orlando Suarez handed the Reds three runs without much hard contact.
From there, the offense stalled out despite a handful of scattered hits — Teran collected a multi-hit night — and a caught stealing in the fourth snuffed out one of their better chances to respond. The Reds tacked on a couple of insurance runs in the sixth while the Sox lineup went quietly late, striking out three times in the final frame to seal a frustrating loss that felt more self-inflicted than anything else.
