Wings Rally, Drop Slugfest Late in Charlotte

The Charlotte Knights set a franchise record with seven home runs to beat the Rochester Red Wings 13-7 Tuesday night at BB&T Ballpark. The Red Wings (14-20) rallied from 5-0 down in the 3rd and 7-1 in the 6th to tie the game in the 8th before the Knights (19-17) plated six runs in the bottom half to secure the win.

Charlotte would hit back-to-back home runs three different times against three different pitchers: in a five-run 3rd inning off Wings starter Zack Littell, solo blasts in the 6th off rehabbing Addison Reed, and during a six-run 8th inning off Fernando Romero. Paulo Orlando and Matt Skole led the Charlotte attack, both hitting a pair of homers. Former Wing Daniel Palka also went deep and had a game-high four RBI.
Drew Maggi led the Red Wings with a 4-for-4 night. He homered, drove in two runs, and also scored twice. Five other Wings tallied multi-hit games, including Luis Arraez who was 2-for-5 with a run scored in his Triple-A debut.
The Knights jumped out to a 5-0 lead through three innings. After LaMonte Wade Jr homered to put Rochester on the board in the 6th, two solo homers in the bottom half extended the Charlotte lead to 7-1. Tomás Telis went deep in the 7th as the Red Wings cut the deficit to 7-3.
Maggi brought the Wings within 7-6 with a two-run homer in the 8th before Jake Cave tied the game with a two-out RBI single.
Charlotte used a two-run double by Ryan Goins, a two-run homer by Palka, and a solo blast from Skole to cap the scoring in the bottom of the 8th.
This is the second time Rochester has surrendered a franchise home run record this season, joining the nine surrendered to Lehigh Valley in the crazy 20-18 game at Frontier Field on April 13.