Knighted: RailRiders overcome by Charlotte's offense

CHARLOTTE, NC (August 13, 2019) - The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders fell behind in the first inning, and a near-historic offensive performance by the Charlotte Knights paced them to a 15-1 win Tuesday night at BB&T Ballpark.

The first five men who came to the plate for the Knights singled, giving them a 3-0 lead after the first inning. They plated three more runs in the third inning and five in the fifth to open up an 11-0 lead over the RailRiders. SWB starting pitcher, Brian Keller, made his second career Triple-A start and matched the franchise record with 16 hits and 11 runs/11 earned runs allowed in the outing.

When the dust settled, the Knights collected 23 hits off RailRiders pitching. Only twice in the 30-year history of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre baseball has a team collected more hits in a game than the Knights did in their eight trips to the plate.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre had been limited to just two hits over 6.0 innings by Charlotte starting pitcher Kyle Kubat, before he gave way to the bullpen. After 2.0 scoreless innings by Matt Foster, Zach Thompson entered for the final three outs. Looking to complete the shutout, he retired the first two men he faced before allowing a solo homer to Ryan McBroom to make it 15-1. McBroom becomes the third RailRiders batter to hit 20+ homers this season, joining Mike Ford (23) and Trey Amburgey (20).

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has now dropped 9-of-12 games and hold a 4.0-game lead over the Buffalo Bisons for first place in the I.L. North Division with 20 games remaining in the regular season.

The RailRiders continue their three-game set in Charlotte with a scheduled 7:04 p.m. first pitch. RHP Brody Koerner (4-3, 4.74) takes the ball for the RailRiders against Charlotte's RHP Donny Roach (3-6, 7.98). Pregame coverage with Adam Giardino begins at 6:34 p.m. on the RailRiders Radio Network.