GreenJackets Fall 3-2 in Eleven-Inning Heartbreaker

North Augusta, SC:

The GreenJackets totaled ten hits and had the bases loaded in both the 10th and 11th innings, but could not push the winning run across as they fell to the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 3-2 Saturday night.

For the second night in a row, both starters engaged in a heated pitchers' duel, as Zach Royse and Max Banks matched each other stride for stride through six innings. Royse and Banks each only allowed one run over their outings, and both turned in their first career quality starts.

For Augusta (14-12), their lone tally off of Banks came in the bottom of the second, and was unearned. After Junior Garcia's two-out single, Cooper McMurray followed with a line drive to center that seemed primed to allow Garcia to take third. Plans changed, however, when Jaden Fauske slipped and allowed the ball to roll past him, pushing Garcia around to score and moving McMurray up to second.

Kannapolis (9-17) would respond in the top of the 4th, also doing so with two outs. Stiven Flores worked a four-pitch walk, the only one of the day from Royse, and Javier Mogollon made Royse pay by cranking a double off the fence in center to score Mogollon and tie the game.

From that point on, neither side would score in regulation as pitching continued to dominate. Carter Lovasz and Pierce George each worked two perfect innings in immediate relief of their starters, and Jaylen Paden and Marco Barrios each held firm in the ninth to force extras.

Neither side would be silenced in the 10th, using the automatic runner to their advantage. A Paden wild pitch moved pinch runner Nathan Archer to third, and a soft groundout from Matthew Boughton brought him home. Augusta countered in the bottom half, with a Dalton McIntyre double putting men at second and third before a base hit from Garcia tied the game.

Garcia's single looked as though it would win the game, but McIntyre was thrown out at the plate on a bang-bang play to keep the game tied. An intentional and unintentional walk loaded the bases, but Juan Mateo's line drive hung up in left to force an eleventh inning.

The Cannon Ballers regained the lead in the top of the 11th against Kade Woods, with James Taussig's leadoff double scoring the automatic runner Marcelo Alcala from second. An Arxy Hernandez single put men and the corners and seemed to promise a big inning, but Woods induced a strikeout and double play to stay within a run.

Anthony Patterson was handed the ball for the bottom half, looking for the team's first successful save of the season. Patterson hit Tate Southisene to start the frame, and a one-out single from Luis Guanipa loaded the bases and put the winning run at second. Patterson would not buckle, however, and struck out Nick Montgomery before a bullet ground ball from McIntyre went right to the second baseman and ended the game.

The GreenJackets drop their third game of the week, and just the third game all season in which they outhit their opponent. For Kannapolis, the win guarantees that they will not lose the series for the first time this year, and give the Ballers the chance to get a series victory tomorrow afternoon.

Davis Polo has the ball for Augusta in tomorrow's finale, a 2:05 matinee at SRP Park. Kannapolis originally had scheduled Truman Pauley to make his second start of the week, but Pauley is now expected to pitch in relief, with lefty Jackson Nove to serve as an opener to end the series.