Mancini Hurls Four Perfect Innings in Loss to Cannon Ballers

Fayetteville, NC – The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (12-17) fell behind 4-0 over the first four innings on Thursday night and never recovered, falling 4-2 and dropping a third straight game to the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (16-12) at Segra Stadium.

Similar to the previous two games, the Kannapolis starting pitcher was dominant. Connor McCullough fired six scoreless innings, struck out seven, and held the Fayetteville offense to just three hits.

The Cannon Ballers took the lead in the second inning on a solo home run from Bryce Willits. Mario Camilletti added on with an RBI single in the third to make it 2-0. Tyler Guilfoil allowed two more runs in the fourth that gave Kannapolis a game-high 4-0 advantage.

Joey Mancini was stellar out of the bullpen and kept Kannapolis off the board for the remainder of the night. The right-hander out of Boston College set down 12 straight hitters and struck out five straight hitters at one point, six in total, over four perfect innings.

Fayetteville’s offense started to chip away against the Kannapolis bullpen but ultimately could not complete a comeback. In the seventh inning, Rolando Espinosa drove in Ricardo Balogh with a sacrifice fly. Tyler Whitaker followed in the eighth with a single, stole second and third, then came home on a balk to cut it to 4-2.

The comeback stalled in the ninth when Carolina rolled out league save leader Billy Seidl. Seidle retired the side in order and sealed Fayetteville's fourth straight loss at 4-2.

FULL BOX SCORE: https://www.milb.com/gameday/728001