Woodpeckers Lose Lead, Fall to Ninth Inning Kannapolis Home-Run

FAYETTEVILLE, NC - The Kannapolis Cannon Baller (4-24) overcame an early 3-0 deficit, and topped the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (11-17) 5-4 with a ninth inning home run on Saturday night at Segra Stadium. The loss to Kannapolis evens the series at two games apiece and forces a rubber-match on Sunday.

After losing the lead and trailing to Kannapolis 4-3, Justin Dirden put the Woodpeckers back in the game. Facing McKinley Moore (W, 1-0) , Dirden smashed a solo home run over the right field wall to knot the game at 4-4.

Jose Betances (L, 0-1) made his Woodpeckers debut out of the bullpen in the eighth inning, got Harvin Mendoza to ground out, and returned to the mound in the top of the ninth.

Betances struck out Caberea Weaver to start the ninth, before Lency Delgado Jr. lifted a deep fly ball to left field. Kenedy Corona leaped on the warning track, secured the ball momentarily, but saw it pop loose for a home run once he collided with the fence. The home run made it a 5-4 game to give the Cannon Ballers their second lead of the night.

Moore recovered with a clean ninth inning, setting the Woodpeckers down in order to close the game.

Fayetteville led for the majority of the night, and captured a 2-0 lead off starter Chase Solesky in the bottom of the second. Yeuris Ramirez led off with a double, and was brought home on an RBI triple from Cody Orr. Jose Alvarez followed with a run-scoring single and was left stranded on base.

Bryan De Paula kept Kannapolis off the board for the first half of the night with five scoreless innings. The left hander didn’t issue a walk and struck out five in his second five-inning performance this season.

Diosmerky Tavares took over in the sixth and surrendered a two-run homer to Chase Krogman. Two more runs scored against Tavares in the seventh, as Kannapolis tied the game on an infield throwing error, and pushed ahead 4-3 on a double-play ball that scored James Beard.

The series concludes on Sunday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 2:00 pm ET. Kannapolis will start RHP Matt Thompson and Fayetteville will counter with RHP Shea Barry.

FULL BOX SCORE: https://www.milb.com/gameday/cannon-ballers-vs-woodpeckers/2021/06/05/649222#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=649222