Last Night in Fredericksburg
On paper, it looked like Fredericksburg dominated Kannapolis, outhitting them 4-1 and racking up 16 strikeouts. But the Cannon Ballers made no errors while the FredNats scored no runs in a 1-0 loss on Saturday night.
That one error proved to be oh-so-costly. With one out and a runner on second base, Landon Harmon threw a slider in the dirt that Cashel Dugger didn’t catch cleanly. The runner had been breaking for third and Dugger decided to try to throw him out instead of completing the strikeout.
The throw went wide of third base and into left field, enabling the Kannapolis runner to score while the batter not only reached first base but took second on the same errant throw.
Fortunately, the mistake only led to the one run, which turned out to be earned when the next batter grounded out to second base, which would have scored him from third because it cannot be assumed the FredNats would have pulled the infield in, or that the drawn-in second baseman still would have made the play.
Harmon would go on to throw four full innings with one run, one hit, one walk, and seven strikeouts. While he could not have won, he was instead saddled with the loss because the offense failed 11 times in RISP opportunities.
The worst of those came in the 7th, when Hunter Hines led off with a double and Juan Cruz singled into medium right field, too sharp for the not fleet of foot Hines to score. The throw in to get Hines missed the cutoff man, enabling Cruz to reach second.
With two in scoring position and nobody out, Fredericksburg seemed like it would at least be able to tie, if not take the lead.
Nope.
Kevin Made tapped one to the pitcher. Jordan Williams was caught looking. Cashel Dugger lined one the other way but right at the left fielder,
The Cannon Ballers gave the FredNats another chance in the 9th with a hit batsman followed by a walk with one out. But this time both Williams (swinging) and Dugger (looking) struck out to end the game.
The two teams wrap up the series this afternoon. Marlon De La Cruz takes the hill for the second time this series against Alexander Martinez for Kannapolis.
