Charlotte Knights 7, Norfolk Tides 4 (Statcast box)
The Knights (15-15) offense carried the team with 10 hits while handing the Tides (9-20) the L to take a commanding three-game series lead. This is the seventh win in a row for Charlotte, which is now back at .500 on the year.

There was plenty of hits to go around on Thursday, with nearly every Charlotte batter getting one, and five of the 10 were extra-base hits. The Knights put up three doubles and two homers — and Kyle Teel’s RBI double in the sixth was nearly the third ball hit out of the park.

Dominic Fletcher and Bryan Ramos each had a multi-hit game, but Omar Narváez and Lipcius both mashed a long ball and accounted for four of the seven runs batted in.

The bullpen was decent, and Wikelman González made his Triple-A debut out of the pen, tossing two innings and racking up three strikeouts while snagging the win. Outside of a 2/3rd-inning hiccup from Justin Anderson, who allowed three hits and two runs, the Knights were able to hold the Tides down, and Dan Altavilla completed his fourth save of the season — the most on the team, and most in the International League.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 6, Birmingham Barons 5 (11 innings)

The Barons (12-11) played a hard-fought game, but the pitching imploded in the 11th inning and the Blue Wahoos (17-7) were able to stave off Birmingham and get the win.

Pensacola scored first in the game but the Barons were able to answer back in the bottom of the first thanks to a two-run single from Ryan Galanie, and they held the lead through the next four innings.

Riley Gowens had a great start through the first five innings, only having allowed one run in the top of the first inning, but things fell apart a bit in the top of the sixth. A throwing error from Mario Camilletti began the three-run rally that allowed the Blue Wahoos to take a 4-3 lead. Gowens gave up seven hits in his start, though even with the four runs given up (three earned), Gowens struck out seven and didn’t walk a single batter.

The Barons fought back in the bottom of the sixth, and Jacob Burke drove in Caden Connor as the tying run. Neither offense was able to assert itself, and both bullpens were essentially indestructible. Jarold Rosado was nearly perfect in the seventh, not allowing a hit and striking out two. And Chase Plymell was highly effective for the final two innings, only allowing two hits while striking out one.

Tyler Davis had everyone holding their breath in the 10th, walking two batters to load the bases with two outs, but thankfully he worked out of it. Gil Luna was in for the 11th and could not find the strike zone to save his life; 20 of his 38 pitches were balls. Luna got the first batter out, but then walked four batters to hand Pensacola two runs without even making contact with the ball.

Connor gave the Barons some brief hope after driving in Camilletti — who started the inning on second — to cut the lead in half. The hope was cut very short, as Shawn Goosenberg and Burke ended the game with back-to-back strikeouts to seal the heartbreaking loss.

Greensboro Grasshoppers 6, Winston-Salem Dash 1
The Dash (9-15) scored first thanks to a Sam Antonacci RBI single in the top of the third, but then fell flat and only mustered five hits for the rest of the game — ultimately falling to the Grasshoppers (16-8), 6-1.

Jake Bockenstedt made his fifth start of 2025, and while he started the year pretty solid, he has given up four runs in each of his last three starts, including today, which slapped him with his second loss of the season. Bockenstedt also struck out six batters and walked two, but either way the lack of run support wasn’t going to cut it.

Winston-Salem had their opportunities to score, leaving five on base and going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position as a team. The Dash bullpen also wasn’t anything to write home about, with everyone giving up a run Thursday except for Madison Jeffrey.

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 3, Augusta GreenJackets 2
Solid pitching and great defense is what propelled the Cannon Ballers (14-10) to victory on Thursday, defeating the GreenJackets (13-11) in a close matchup.

On the mound was Justin Sinibaldi making his fourth start of the season, and it might have been his best game yet. He was in command for five innings, and only allowed one run on two hits. Sinibaldi threw 67% of his pitches for strikes (51 of 76), and walked one and struck out five while earning his first win of the year.

It also helped that the defense was holding down the fort behind Sinibaldi, and the outfield made not one, but two diving plays behind him.

The first came from Nate Archer in the top of the third:

Then Abraham Núñez in the top of the fourth:

The bullpen was on point once they took over. Only three more hits were given up the rest of the game, and Grant Umberger was excellent in relief. Umberger happened to strike out the same amount of batters as Sinibaldi (five), though he did it in three less innings. Things got a bit dicey in the ninth with the GreenJackets pulling within one, but Morris Austin was still able to keep Augusta at bay and record his second save of the season.

On the other side of the ball, Kannapolis put up six hits, with Ryan Burrowes and Miguel Santos, as the two players with a multi-hit game — including a home run in the fourth from Santos, his first as a Cannon Baller!

They got on base plenty by also walking six times, but only went 2-for-12 with RISP, so the game probably shouldn’t have been as tight as it was. George Wolkow and Ryan Burrowes accounted for the other two runs batted in for Kanny, just enough to sneak away with the win.