Gwinnett Stripers 10, Charlotte Knights 7
The Knights (13-15) spent most of the evening face-down in the dirt despite a frantic late scramble.
Hagen Smith looked locked in early, breezing through two before the wheels wobbled in the third. A leadoff walk turned into a two-run shot, and just like that, Charlotte was chasing. Smith settled back in and finished four innings, allowing just the two runs on one hit while striking out six, but walks (three) continued to be a trend that has lingered for the southpaw.
Then the bullpen arrived and set the place on fire. Jonathan Cannon’s first act: serve up a solo homer in the fifth. His encore? Six runs on seven hits in the sixth, and suddenly it’s 9–0, Knights buried under an avalanche of their own making.
But credit to the Knights for continuing to grind. Oliver Dunn finally broke through with a solo blast in the fifth, and then the bats put up a crooked number in the seventh. They loaded the bases on a walk, an error, and a single, and Dru Baker punched a liner to right, plating two. Then came pure basepath chaos with a wild pitch, an infield single, and airmail from Aaron Schunk, allowing two more runs to score.
Charlotte kept on clawing, though. LaMonte Wade Jr. doubled in the eighth and scored on Dunn’s RBI knock, then Jacob Gonzalez launched a two-out solo shot in the ninth to make things interesting. The Knights even loaded the bases after that, bringing the tying run to the plate only for Dunn to whiff.
Too much damage early. Not quite enough time to recover late.
Chattanooga Lookouts 4, Birmingham Barons 3
The Birmingham Barons (9-13) nearly pulled off a ninth-inning comeback but came up just short.
Birmingham fell behind right away, as Connor McCullough surrendered a leadoff home run to open the game. In the second inning, a couple of walks and two base hits allowed Chattanooga to tack on two more runs, putting the Barons in an early 3–0 hole.
The Lookouts added what proved to be a critical insurance run in the sixth, when Chase Watkins allowed a solo homer to extend the lead to 4–0.
For most of the night, Birmingham’s offense struggled to get anything going. The Barons managed just two hits through the first eight innings — a leadoff double from Adam Fogel in the third and a single by Braden Montgomery in the fifth.
Then came the ninth. Wilfred Veras plated the Barons’ first run with a leadoff solo shot. Two outs later, Jacob Burke kept the inning alive with a single, setting the stage for Fogel, who crushed a two-run homer to left to make it a one-run game.
The Barons weren’t done yet. Andy Weber reached on a fielding error, and Samuel Zavala followed with a single to push the tying run to third while bringing the winning run to first. With the game on the line, Montgomery stepped in, but he went down swinging, ending the threat.
Winston-Salem Dash 7, Greensboro Grasshoppers 6 (10 innings)
The Winston-Salem Dash (15-7) refused to go quietly, storming back late and walking it off in extras.
The Dash were chasing early. The Grasshoppers struck in the first inning off Dylan Cumming, tallying one on an error, then adding two more runs in the sixth and another pair in the seventh to build a 5–2 lead. A solo homer in the eighth stretched the deficit to 6–2.
But W-S had a secret weapon in Caleb Bonemer, who began to swing the momentum in the bottom of the sixth when he smacked a two-run homer, trimming the deficit to 3-2. Then, down 6-2 in the eighth, Bonemer did it AGAIN! After Ely Brown worked a free pass, Caleb sent it flying out of the park for another two-run jack. But it was the ninth inning where things really got fun. With the Dash down to their last bullet, Brown reached on an error. And you know what happened next? Bonemer delivered AGAIN — launching his third two-run round-tripper of the night to tie the game at 6–6.
With new life, the Dash carried that energy into extras.
In the top of the 10th, Winston-Salem turned to Jonathan Clark to keep the Grasshoppers off the board, and he delivered. Then, in the bottom half, the Dash came in clutch. With the ghost runner in scoring position and two outs, Kyle Lodise came through with a sharp single to center, plating the winning run and sealing the comeback victory.
Augusta GreenJackets 12, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 4
The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (6-16) struck first in this one, but a disastrous middle innings stretch proved too much to overcome.
Kannapolis jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the second inning, capitalizing on early command issues from the Augusta starter Logan Forsythe. An RBI base hit from Arxy Hernández and a run-scoring ground out by Abraham Núñez gave the Ballers a quick edge.
That momentum held until the bottom of the fifth, when the game quickly flipped. Augusta erupted for five runs off Truman Pauley in the inning, highlighted by a couple of two-run homers, turning a deficit into a 5–2 lead.
The damage didn’t stop there. Augusta piled on in the sixth, adding four more runs, including another two-run blast to stretch the lead to 9–2. More long balls in the eighth with two more dingers as the GreenJackets extended the margin to eight. Five round trippers accounted for nine of Augusta’s 12 runs.
Kannapolis showed some late fight, when Jaden Fauske, who knocked a two-out double, scored in the seventh on an RBI single by Stiven Flores. The Ballers plated another tally again in the eighth on an RBI single from Núñez, but the early hole proved insurmountable.