SALISBURY, MD - Despite putting up two runs in the eighth inning and holding the Shorebirds scoreless after the fourth inning, the Intimidators fell to Delmarva 4-3 Saturday night at Perdue Stadium.Kannapolis got on the scoreboard early Saturday night, as the second batter of the ball game, Lenyn Sosa, cranked
SALISBURY, MD - Despite putting up two runs in the eighth inning and holding the Shorebirds scoreless after the fourth inning, the Intimidators fell to Delmarva 4-3 Saturday night at Perdue Stadium.
Kannapolis got on the scoreboard early Saturday night, as the second batter of the ball game, Lenyn Sosa, cranked a 3-1 pitch over the left field wall to give him his sixth homer of the season and the Intimidators a 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless second inning for both teams, Jason Bilous (L, 6-10) lost sight of the strike zone in the third. After walking the first three batters on 16 pitches, throwing just four strikes, Bilous allowed a single to Johnny Rizer to even the score, 1-1.
After a four-pitch walk to Adley Rutschman to bring in another run for the Shorebirds, Bilous recorded his second strikeout of the inning with a punch out of Adam Hall. One batter later, Bilous walked his fifth of the inning, allowing another run to walk in and increase the lead to two runs, 3-1. Declan Cronin relieved Bilous of his duties after that walk, getting J.C. Encarnacion to fly out to center field to end the walk-filled frame.
In the bottom of the fourth, Cronin allowed a walk to Cody Roberts to begin the inning, as the Shorebirds used two straight groundouts to move the runner to third. On an 0-2 pitch, Doran Turchin singled on a groundball up the middle, scoring Roberts to push the lead to three runs, 4-1.
Fast forward four innings, Kannapolis got back on the board. Ian Dawkins led off the frame with a single to right field, as the South Atlantic League hit leader scooted to second moments later via a wild pitch from Matt De La Rosa.
One batter later, Sosa singled to put runners at first and third for Kannapolis, as Alex Destino then singled to center field to bring in Dawkins. With the Intimidators down 4-2, Tyler Osik hit a ground-rule double (10) to left-center field to score Sosa, with the ground-rule helping the Shorebirds out by keeping Destino at third.
Down by just one run, De La Rosa struckout the next three Kannapolis batters to end the threat in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Felix Beautista of the Shorebirds struckout the side on 11 pitches, putting an end to the Kannapolis comeback.
The Intimidators will look to take the series lead in game three of the four-game series with the Shorebirds on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. Johan Dominguez (5-5, 3.19 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Intimidators against Delmarva's Dallas Litscher (2-1, 4.03).
