It was a rough day, with the Knights game getting postponed and the other affiliates going 0-3
Charlotte Knights vs. Buffalo Bisons: Postponed
The Knights (25-27) were unable to face the Bisons (19-31) due to the weather in Buffalo. This game is scheduled to be played as part of a doubleheader on Thursday.
Today’s #Bisons game against the @KnightsBaseball has been postponed due to rain.
Teams will play a single-admission doubleheader on Thursday, May 29 at Sahlen Field with the first of two seven-inning contests beginning at 11:05 a.m. (Gates: 10:00 a.m.).
— Buffalo Bisons (@BuffaloBisons) May 28, 2025
Knoxville Smokies 2, Birmingham 0 (7 innings)
The Smokies managed to snap Birmingham’s six-game winning streak, so the Barons fell to 25-19 overall. This game was supposed to be the first of two Barons games today, but the second game was not played due to the weather. As a result, this game only lasted seven innings.
Barons starter Jake Palisch, 26, pitched well, only allowing one run on three hits in five innings. Palisch racked up seven strikeouts, but the Barons offense just did not get it done in this game. When reliever Zach Franklin took over on the mound, Palisch was in line for the loss, and that is what he eventually got. Franklin allowed one run in his only inning on the mound, and the Barons failed to score.
Rikuu Nishida finished 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, and those were the only Barons hits. The Barons drew five walks, so they had some scoring opportunities, but they finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Hub City Spartanburgers 7, Winston-Salem Dash 6
The Dash (16-31) woke up late in this game, but their rally fell just short against Hub City (25-22).
After taking care of business with the Cannon Ballers, Christian Oppor is off to a slow start with the Dash. It is still very early for Oppor, 20, who has only made two starts for Winston-Salem. In five starts for Kannapolis, Oppor posted a 2.42 ERA, but through two starts with Winston-Salem, Oppor has allowed seven earned runs in seven innings. In this game, Oppor allowed four runs (three earned runs) in 3 1⁄3 innings. Oppor needed 71 pitches to make it through 3 1⁄3 innings (21.3 pitches per inning), which is on the inefficient side. It is worth noting that Oppor left the game with runners on first and second with one out in the fourth. Reliever Connery Peters failed to strand either of those runners, so Oppor was charged with both of those runs. Through four innings, the Dash trailed by a score of 4-1.
The Dash scored their first run in the second inning, when Matt Hogan drew a leadoff walk, he advanced to second on a wild pitch. Hogan proceeded to score on a single by Alec Makarewicz.
By the end of the fifth inning, Peters was charged with two earned runs, so the Dash were down, 6-1. Hogan went back to work for the Dash, leading off the sixth with a triple, and he scored on a balk. In the seventh, Jeral Perez launched his 11th homer to reduce the deficit to two. Perez drove in Samuel Zavala, who had reached on an error. With the score still 6-4 in the eighth, Makarewicz led off with a single, and he came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Sprinkle.
Suddenly, the Spartanburgers only led by one, but they picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Hub City hit back-to-back singles, and those hits were followed by back-to-back walks. Dash outfielder Cole McConnell launched a solo homer in the ninth, but it was not enough to complete the comeback.
Charleston RiverDogs 7, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 4
The Cannon Ballers (26-21) failed to overcome a monstrous fifth inning by the RiverDogs (21-26).
Cannon Ballers starter Seth Keener, 23, was cruising through four innings. At that point, only two opposing hitters had reached base safely, and the RiverDogs did not have any major scoring opportunities. However, that changed in the fifth. With the game still scoreless, the first nine RiverDogs of the inning reached base safely. After the first six batters of the inning, reliever Jonathan Clark took over on the mound, inheriting the bases loaded with no outs. The first three opposing hitters reached base safely against Clark, and that extended Charleston’s lead to six. Clark recovered to strike out the next three batters, but a lot of damage had been done.
The Cannon Ballers got on the board in the sixth, when Lyle Miller-Green got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in a run. The RiverDogs got that run back in the bottom half to make the score 7-1.
In the seventh, Kannapolis scored once more, when Nathan Archer singled and came around to score on a Caleb Bonemer sacrifice fly. In the ninth, with the score still 7-2, Abraham Núñez singled, and Javier Mogollón got hit by a pitch. After singles by Ronny Hernandez and Mikey Kane, the deficit was down to three. However, that single by Kane was the last hit of the game, so the RiverDogs held on.