NORTH AUGUSTA, SC: The GreenJackets were unable to capitalize on a pair of early chances, and the bats went dormant quickly as the Cannon Ballers pulled away late in an 8-1 thrashing of Augusta Friday night.
Augusta took the early lead in the bottom of the first, scoring three batters in before Mathias LaCombe settled down. John Gil and Tate Southisene each began with base hits, and Owen Carey scored Gil on an RBI groundout.
LaCombe walked Dixon Williams to put men at the corners, but induced a 6-3 double play from Juan Mateo to curtail the rally.
The second was eerily similar for Augusta, as Jeremy Reyes stranded the bases loaded in the top half before the Jackets were stonewalled despite a key chance in the bottom.
Augusta put multiple men on with one out for the second inning, using a Joe Olsavsky single and walk for Hayden Friese, but LaCombe got another inning-ending double play, and the GreenJackets did not record another hit for the rest of the night.
The Ballers took the lead the very next frame, and never let go as they grabbed their third win in four games. Reyes struggled with his command again, and loaded the bases with nobody out on a hit by pitch, bunt, and walk.
Anthony DePino clubbed a sac fly to the fence to tie the game, and Kannapolis ran a double steal play with men at the corners to bring the go-ahead run home from third.
Reyes issued another walk and hit by pitch to reload the bases, but survived with no further damage.
Neither offense made waves in the middle innings, as Kevin Davis struck out seven without a hit and earned his 4th win of the year.
On the other side, Albert Rivas fired a pair of zeroes in relief of Reyes, and Logan Forsythe carved through the 6th in short order.
Forsythe’s luck ran out in the 7th, as Kannapolis took him to task for key insurance. George Wolkow ripped a one-out double, and came around to score on a two-out knock from Colby Shelton.
Miguel Santos added another base hit, and a third straight single with two down plated two as Kaleb Freeman came up big for a 5-1 lead.
The Cannon Ballers put the game fully out of reach in the 8th, scoring another three runs off of Jaylen Paden thanks to a Wolkow double as well as an E5 that led to two more runs.
The Jackets still stayed hitless late, as Marco Barrios retired nine of ten men he saw and recorded his first save at the Single-A level.
There are just two games remaining in the 2025 season, with a 6:05 p.m. start Saturday, Sept. 6, representing the penultimate contest and the year’s final fireworks show.
Landon Beidelschies will make his second pro appearance and first at SRP Park, while Ricardo Brizuela looks for his second win in 23 games this year as he caps off what has been a strong end of the year.
