It's not quite as remarkable as a 13-walk inning, but the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers had their own sequence to forget on Thursday. They raced out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning on the strength of seven walks and an HBP, only to be held to one hit over the final eight innings.
Normally that would still be enough for the Cannon Ballers to lock down their first win of the season, especially since Matthew Thompson threw five scoreless innings to get them past the halfway point.
Instead, the Cannon Ballers bullpen gave up two in the sixth, one in the seventh, and before they could even record a second out of the ninth inning, four Fayetteville Woodpeckers crossed the plate to keep Kannapolis winless on the season.
Here was the sequence that did them in:
- One-out walk to load the bases
- Run-scoring walk
- Run-scoring infield single
- Run-scoring HBP
- Game-ending error by José Rodriguez.
The Cannon Ballers are 0-9.
Charlotte 3, Norfolk 2
- Blake Rutherford went 1-for-4.
- Jake Burger, 2-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
- Gavin Sheets was 2-for-4.
- Brian Goodwin, 1-for-3 with a walk.
Birmingham 16, Pensacola 6
- Ti'Quan Forbes went 1-for-4 with an HBP and two strikeouts.
Winston-Salem 2, Hickory 1
- Duke Ellis went 0-for-3 with a walk.
- Lenyn Sosa doubled, singled, struck out twice and was picked off.
- Luis Curbelo was 1-for-4 with a homer and two strikeouts.
- Luis Mieses was 0-for-4.
- Harvin Mendoza, 0-for-3 with a strikeout and an HBP.
- Jason Bilous: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
- Luke Shilling: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Fayetteville 7, Kannapolis 6
- José Rodriguez went 1-for-3 with two walks, and stole a base.
- Bryan Ramos singled, walked and struck out thrice.
- DJ Gladney went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts.
- Benyamin Bailey and Sam Abbott both walked once and struck out thrice.
- Johnabiell Laureano went 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout.
- Matthew Thompson: 5 IP, 4 H, -0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
