NORTH AUGUSTA, SC: The GreenJackets took an early blow that left them reeling, and never recovered, as a handful of early knocks set the tone for the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers in a 10-6 win.
Rayven Antonio’s final start of the year was a rare rough one in an overall impressive summer. Antonio ceded a run two batters into the game, on an RBI single from Ely Brown to score Jordan Sprinkle, and never truly recovered. The wheels came off in the second inning, with six of the first seven batters reaching to chase Rayven with just four outs recorded. All told, Antonio allowed six hits, three walks, and six runs, with RBI hits coming in the 2nd from Sprinkle, Brown, and George Wolkow.
Jhonly Taveras would stop the bleeding in the 2nd, and worked a scoreless 3rd before the Ballers tacked on in the 4th. Colby Shelton grabbed his 2nd RBI of the day, this one on a groundout after a walk and two errors put a man at third. The Jackets finally got on the board in the next half against Jake Curtis in his first pro start, as Tate Southisene led off with a single and scored on a two-out double from Juan Mateo.
Kannapolis appeared to put the game out of reach in the 5th against Taveras, scoring three more runs for a 10-1 lead. Back-to-back walks set the tone, and Sprinkle rolled another base hit to bring home a run. Brown followed behind, and his third hit of the day brought his RBI total to a career-high five in a dynamic day.
Augusta brought themselves within a respectable margin in the bottom of the 8th, sending 9 men to the dish against Blake Shephardson and Marco Barrios. Shephardson led off with a walk to John Gil, and loaded the bases via an Owen Carey single and Dixon Williams walk. Mateo lifted a sac fly to score Gil, and Nick Montgomery brought home two more with a base hit up the middle. Barrios came in to mop up, but not before Hayden Friese brought home another to make it 10-5.
After Drew Christo worked three scoreless innings of relief, the Jackets were out of available arms, and were forced to turn to infielder Leiker Figueroa for his second career pitching performance. Fueled by lobs and eephus pitches that sunk as low as 32 miles per hour, Figueroa dazzled his own dugout by dodging two singles to post a surprising zero, keeping his career ERA at 0.00.
The GreenJackets pushed across one final run in the 9th, with Mateo singling home Gil as the 18-year-old phenom secured his first 3-hit game at the Single-A level. That would be all that came down in the 9th, as Augusta fell 10-6 and brought their winning streak to a close.
The two sides get a much-needed day off tomorrow after a long week of baseball, and return to SRP Park Wednesday night for the final five games of the year. Ethan Bagwell will make his final start of his first pro season, opposite lefty Justin Sinibaldi.
