Three Kannapolis Bats Add a Home Run in 19-2 Walloping of Hill City Saturday

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. - The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers demolished the Hill City Howlers in the series finale in a lopsided, 19-2, victory at Atrium Health Ballpark on Saturday night.

With the win, the Ballers get on the board with their first victory of the season at 1-2 on the year. Hill City falls for the first time in 2026, on the wrong end of a Kannapolis outburst.

The Ballers deployed five arms in their first win of the 2026 season with RHP Blaine Wink tossing two innings of one-run ball before some rainfall pushed the game into a delay. LHP Trey Cooper (W, 1-0) took the ball after the break, allowing no hits, one unearned run, walking two batters and punching out four Howlers. RHP Anthony Patterson appeared next out of the ‘pen, throwing a scoreless 2.2 innings and striking out four more Hill City batters. The eighth inning belonged to RHP Landen Payne, who collected a strikeout in his scoreless frame. RHP Pierce George finished off the game with an exclamation point, as a 1-2-3 ninth inning secured the win for Kannapolis.

Four bats provided three-RBI games in Saturday’s win, with the Cannon Ballers putting up an astonishing 12-run bottom of the first. Boston Smith started the party with a loud, long two-RBI ground-rule double to left-center to score a pair. A few batters later, D’Angelo Tejada smacked the first home run of the season for Kannapolis, launching a three-run shot into the berm to put the home side ahead, 7-0. Soon after, following a few base hits that drove more runs in, Rylan Galvan knocked his first base-hit of the season with a three-run blast of his own to make it, 12-0, Ballers after one.

The top prospect tandem at the top of the order for the Ballers came through again in Saturday’s win. Billy Carlson has now started his season with three games in a row of runs driven in on base hits, while Jaden Fauske provided four runs from the leadoff spot with a pair of walks.

James Taussig entered as a defensive replacement in the seventh, but added the third home run of the game for Kannapolis in the bottom of the frame with a two-run line drive to right field on the first pitch he saw to put Kannapolis in front, 19-2, which proved to be an advantage much too large for the Hill City Howlers.

The Cannon Ballers team, coaches and staff will enjoy the Easter holiday and the standard Monday off-day before the first six-game homestand of the season April 7-12 against the Hickory Crawdads, Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

The 2026 Kannapolis Cannon Ballers season is underway at Atrium Health Ballpark! Single-game tickets, season ticket packages, group experiences and 10-game mini plans for the 2026 season are available for purchase now. Call the Cannon Ballers ticket office at (704) 932-3267 or visit kcballers.com for more information