NORTH AUGUSTA – A close contest turned into a one-sided laugher late, as the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers posted eight runs in their final three chances to secure a 13-4 win against the GreenJackets Saturday night.
For the second straight evening, the GreenJackets took the lead in the bottom of the first, getting to Ricardo Brizuela before he could settle in. John Gil began the game with a double, and one batter later, a double from Tate Southisene brought home the game’s first run.
Kannapolis would not wait to answer, stealing the lead the very next inning against Landon Beidelschies in his SRP Park debut. The leadoff man reached on a dropped third strike, and after two more Ks from Beidelschies, Arxy Hernandez crushed a two-run home run for the lead.
The Ballers doubled their lead in the third on an RBI single from Ely Brown, his seventh RBI in five games against Augusta this week. Augusta answered back in the bottom half, as Owen Carey ripped a solo home run over the wall in right for his fourth long ball of the year.
It was not until the sixth that either team struck again, with the Ballers extending their lead against Lewis Sifontes. George Wolkow led off with a single, and came around to score in the next at bat as Miguel Santos cracked an RBI double. Santos would not wait to score either, using a throwing error at third to tack on another run. Augusta responded in the bottom half once more, with a two-run shot from Leiker Figueroa getting the runs back.
It was the top of the seventh where things unraveled, as Sifontes fell apart and the Cannon Ballers struck for five runs. The Ballers sent 11 men to the plate and totaled six, the highlight of which was a two-run screamer from George Wolkow that just snuck over the wall.
Sifontes was lifted for Jackson Dannelley, and Kannapolis got to him as well, with Anthony DePino crushing an opposite-field home run to open the 8th and add another run. Low on arms, the Jackets had to turn to Figueroa (the third baseman) to pitch for the second time this week, and he surrendered RBIs to Wolkow and Santos to bring the team’s totals to 13 runs and 16 hits.
The GreenJackets could not muster a run against Hale Sims in the final three innings, and fell for the fourth time in five games this week. Sunday afternoon the 2025 season comes to a close with a 1 p.m. matinee set to wrap up the summer at SRP Park.
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