Birmingham remains strong while Charlotte pitching presents more concerns than ever
Round Rock Express 22, Charlotte Knights 13 (Statcast box)
Hours before the first pitch, the Knights welcomed back Tim Elko and reunited with Andrew Vaughn after the White Sox demoted both of their first basemen in favor of Miguel Vargas and various other non-native first sackers. Perhaps Elko’s return to Charlotte after spending fewer than two weeks in the majors brought bad juju to the Knights, because they lost a high-scoring blowout no one could’ve anticipated.
Tyler Schweitzer surrendered a solo home run in the first, but Tristan Gray returned a pair of runs with an RBI double to give the Knights a 2-1 lead. Then, the game unraveled. Schweitzer allowed six more runs, five of which were earned, as the Knights entered an 11-1 deficit. Charlotte clobbered back in the fourth with six runs from Nick Maton’s single and back-to-back home runs from Zach DeLoach and Kyle Teel to make it 11-8.
By the sixth, a three-run blast from Bryan Ramos tied the game at 13, and you might have assumed both teams were out of runs. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
BRYAN RAMOS JUST DID THAT!! pic.twitter.com/SgJIzIt6i5
— Charlotte Knights (@KnightsBaseball) May 24, 2025
Charlotte’s bullpen collapsed: Justin Anderson, Penn Murfee, and infielder Andre Lipcius shared the burden of allowing eight runs in the eighth, and Lipcius closed out the night with an additional run given up in the ninth. Perhaps the season-long first baseman in Charlotte will now move to relief, with both Vaughn and Elko back in town?
The Knights endured a crushing loss at the expense of their bullpen and slow offense early in the game.
Birmingham Barons 6, Pensacola Blue Wahoos 3
DJ Gladney put the Barons on the board in the second inning: He reached first from a throwing error by Pensacola’s Johnny Olmstead, stole second, and was driven in by Adam Hackenberg’s single. The Blue Wahoos answered with their own RBI single in the bottom of the frame to tie it at 1-1, but Dalton Roach was otherwise solid over three innings with four hits and five strikeouts.
Birmingham delivered five unanswered runs in the third and fourth innings to secure the win early. Rikku Nishida put the Barons back up, 2-1, singling and advancing to other side of the diamond after stealing second and tacking on third from a wild pitch. Nishida, Caden Connor, and Ryan Galanie each singled to put up a four-spot, giving the Barons a generous 6-1 lead. The Blue Wahoos tried to storm back against Jordan Mikel by muscling a run in the fourth and sixth, but it wasn’t enough, as Eric Adler earned his first save after being demoted from Charlotte.
Hudson Valley Renegades 10, Winston-Salem Dash 1
The Dash pulled their weight in the first half, but later fell behind to no one’s fault but their own. Luis Pineda cost the Dash a run in the top of the first when he tried to pick off Hudson Valley’s Brendan Jones stealing third, but the throw was off and Jones stole a run with ease. Arxy Hernández tied the affair in the top of the second with a solo home run.
HOME RUN by Arxy Hernandez@AtriumHealthWFB pic.twitter.com/2h9BzCK93h
— Winston-Salem Dash (@WSDashBaseball) May 23, 2025
Both offenses pushed pause as Tommy Vail finished his four-inning outing, holding the Renegades to two walks and a run while striking out three before ushering in the bullpen. While the Winston-Salem offense continued its silence the rest of the game, the Renegades eventually came back to score the go-ahead run off Phil Fox. He pitched one scoreless frame before relinquishing a run to knock the Dash down, 2-1. The Renegades continued extending their lead until the eighth, when they completely blew the game out of the water with a five-run rampage that squashed any hopes of a Dash comeback.
Columbia Fireflies 6, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 4
Kanny did its best, but Columbia simply bested them. The Fireflies got an early jump on Manuel Veloz in the first inning after conceding a run from a wild pitch, but it didn’t take long for the Cannon Ballers to tie the game. Caleb Bonemer doubled and eventually scored off Calvin Harris’ RBI single. Kannapolis regained the lead in the third, this time with Harris crossing the plate from a Ryan Burrowes sac fly, making it 2-1. Later, Wilber Sánchez added an insurance run in the sixth to keep Kannapolis ahead, 3-1, and a passed ball in the seventh gave the Cannon Ballers a comfortable 4-1 lead
Kanny’s bullpen did an exceptional job with a short lead — until the ninth. Gabriel Rodriguez and Hale Sims worked together to blank the Fireflies for 3 ⅓ innings, but Kevin Davis’ earned run in the eighth put pressure on Pierce George, who spoiled the pen’s hard work. Coming into the game with two outs left to go, George relinquished two runs from a wild pitch and home plate steal, and a third on a RBI single as the Kannapolis win melted away.
ACL Padres 10, ACL White Sox 6
The Sox maintained a fair contest with the limited hits they collected. Jordany Chirinos gave up 3-0 lead on Arnaldo Lantigua’s home run in the first inning, and continued to allow three more runs until he was relieved. The Sox kept on the Padres’ heels, though, with a defensive throwing error in the second, a three-run third inning backed by Matt Hogan and Adrian Gil, and Marcelo Acala’s RBI double in the fourth to make the game 8-6 Padres halfway through the fourth.
But then the Sox stopped hitting. The Sox only managed to get two hits for the remaining three innings, while the Padres scored two insurance runs off two veteran relievers who should know better: Jairo Iriarte, who gave up two hits and a run in his first ACL game this year; and Vince Vannelle, who did the same.