Strong offense, robust starts … Saturday had everything but a complete sweep of wins throughout the system
Charlotte Knights 7, Lehigh Valley IronPigs 4 (Statcast Box)
The final score was nowhere near an indication of the blowout that took place in Charlotte on Saturday afternoon, as the Iron-Pigs were held scoreless for the first eight innings of the game while the Knights racked up seven runs. Accolades for nearly all Knights today, but special merit goes to Dominic Fletcher in the leadoff spot driving in the first two runs of the game and allowing the club to not look back:
Dom Fletcher knows how to leadoff a game! pic.twitter.com/eytv5z0LzJ
— Charlotte Knights (@KnightsBaseball) June 7, 2025
But really, fueled by 13 hard hits, the lineup piled on a definitely-not-AI IronPiggssss starter named “Nabil Crismatt.” Good for you, Knights, fight venture capital at all turns.
Oh, it’s worth reminding that Lehigh Valley came into the contest with an amazing 43-18 record. Meanwhile, the Knights have crept ever closer to getting back to .500, at 30-32.
P.S. Bryan Ramos has had an awful year, and even this game was a mixed bag (homer, error), but we love him at SSS and he ended the game in about the smoothest-groove way possible:
What a play by Bryan Ramos to end the game! pic.twitter.com/3X8svxZ1UK
— Charlotte Knights (@KnightsBaseball) June 7, 2025
Rocket City Trash Pandas 3, Birmingham Barons 1
Talk about a hard-luck loss for Riley Gowens: The righthander was one out from finishing up a scoreless six-inning start and potentially racking up his sixth win against no losses. However, with two outs in the sixth, Denzel Guzman took Gowens deep with a shot that not only tarnished his outing, but turned a 1-0 Barons lead upside-down.
That’s not to say the main scolding shouldn’t be dealt to the Bham O, which out-hit the Raccoons 7-5 but did almost zero with the advantage: seven left on base, 0-for-6 with RISP. If not for DJ Gladney putting one ball over the fence, the offense would have had nothing to show for Saturday.
Winston-Salem Dash 8, Asheville Tourists 3 (called after 6 ½ innings, rain)
Somehow, Tourist Lucas Spence (2-for-3, 2B, HR) couldn’t upend the Dash alone, leaving Winston-Salem to cruise to a early, quick (save for a half-hour rain delay) win on the road. And the win was all offense, really, as Lucas Gordon had an off-day and Vince Vannelle inherited his win. Eternally-struggling Samuel Zavala had a monster effort, with two run-scoring hits including a homer. But overall the offense squeezed nine hits (four XBH) and four walks into just seven frames.
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 4, Myrtle Beach Pelicans 0
As can be the case with extremely young pitchers, Luis Reyes has been working things out with an up-and-down season. As you might discern from the final score, today’s effort from the 19-year-old Kanny starter was an enormous UP: seven innings, no runs, four hits, just 84 total pitches. On offense, the CBs put a lot of traffic on the basepaths (nine hits, SEVEN walks) but didn’t cash in too liberally (2-for-12 RISP, 14 LOB). But the good news is that Kannapolis crawls back up to 30-26 with this dominating win.
ACL White Sox 5, ACL Dodgers 1 (7 innings)
The Complex Sox push back to a winning record (13-12) with a win over that also-ran org in Los Angeles. How about that? Fabian Ysalla had the equivalent of an ACL complete game, going five innings with nary a sneeze of trouble. Meanwhile offensive centerpiece Adrian Gil lead a robust attack with the bats, as 10 hits generated five runs in fairly short time.