On a night where weather was looming around Atrium Health Ballpark, the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers struck the Carolina Mudcats down 6-4. The win was the Ballers’ third straight.
The tone of the evening was set behind the pitching of RHP Chase Solesky. The White Sox 2019 draftee came into the game yet to secure a victory. Solesky laid into the Mudcats hard early on, striking out four and not allowing a hit across the first three innings of the ballgame.
What worked well for him was getting ahead in the count early and often. By being ahead, that allowed Solesky to use his full repertoire to dispose of the Mudcats — especially his slider that he utilized to make the batters look foolish at the plate.
With Solesky firing off strong, the Cannon Baller offense followed suit and came out looking for runs. In the 1st inning, Jose Rodriguez reached on an error and Bryan Ramos singled, setting up a Luis Mieses sac fly to get Kannapolis on the board. Cabera Weaver was able to line a double to out field that scored Ramos and pushed another run across the plate, giving the Kannapolis a 2-0 lead.
When the 4th inning approached, I thought to myself, “Chase Solesky has no-hit the Mudcats through three solid innings.” Not wanting to jinx anything, I kept my thoughts off Twitter. Unfortunately that didn’t work out as Solesky gave up a walk to the Mudcats’ Joe Gray Jr., who scored on a Noah Campbell single after stealing 2nd and advancing to 3rd on an error.
That all came with two outs in the inning, which was the worst part about it. The Tulane product came back and struck out the last batter of the inning to close the 4th inning.
The 5th inning gave the righty some trouble as the signs of fatigue were kicking in. It was appeant the Solesky was yanking his fastball, trying to trim the top of the zone, and he just seemed to spike some of his off speed pitches. Those trouble came after he had allowed the 2nd Mudcats run to cross the plate following a lead-off triple and a single to score the runner.
It seemed like Solesky wasn’t going to survive the inning, but manager Guilliermo Quiroz left his starter in and struck out another Mudcat before a double play got him out of the inning.
His final stat line doesn’t do him justice with how well he pitched the first three innings: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, BB, 6 K on 77 pitches. This was Solesky’s 5th outing of the year where he struck out five or more batters and his 3rd outing where he allowed only one earned run or less.
With Solesky getting Kannapolis out of a jam in the top of the 5th inning, the Cannon Ballers were able to knock Mudcats starter Broke Begue for the bottom half of the frame in favor of Michele Vassalotti. At the same time Vassalotti came in, the weather I mentioned early hit at its worst, which was at most a steady misting. The Mudcats’ righty seemed to struggle with grip, accumulating four walks and two hit-by-pitches across his 2.1 innings of work.
The first of those walks and hit-by-pitches came from Rodriguez and Ramos respectively to kick off the 5th. Harvin Mendoza came up clutch with a bloop double to center to score Rodriguez and get the Cannon Ballers back out front.
A Weaver hit-by-pitch and Lency Delgado walk brought Bryan Ramos in to score and set up a wild play on a Victor Torres dribbler up the 3rd base line, scoring two runs on the play and putting the Kannapolis lead up to 6-2. Small ball and patience were clutch for a team whose plate discipline hasn’t been the best this year as they lead the Low-A East division in strikeouts with a whopping 394 on the year.
Tyler Johnson relieved Chase Solesky in the 6th inning, still working on a rehab stint from the Charlotte Knights at the Triple-A Level. The 6th frame was a beauty as he struck out two and looked dominant with his stuff, with no real hitches or hindrances on his delivery.
He got himself in a sticky situation in the 7th where he loaded the bases behind two walks and a single. Cool, calm and collected, he bounced back for two strikeouts before Quiroz pulled him. In to get Kannapolis out of the jam was LHP Ty Madrigal who only needed one pitch to induce a groundout to end the inning.
The way Johnson is pitching tells me he’s more than healthy and I wouldn’t be shocked if the power-righty isn’t called back up to Charlotte on Monday.
Following a quiet 6th and 7th innings for both sides, Madrigal allowed a 2-run home run to the Mudcats’ Zavier Warren, bringing them within two of Kannapolis. That was no worry for the Cannon Ballers as White Sox top-30 prospect McKinley Moore came in to pitch the 9th and closed the door on the Mudcats’ chances.
Moore went on to record his first career save in Low-A ball where he struck out two and looked confident in his command. Across his last four appearances, Moore has thrown 6 IP with 10 K, 6 BB and 1 ER. The walks are a little concerning, but his sample size is still relatively small as he hasn’t had many save opportunities considering the teams record so far.
I’ve been waiting for a turning point for Kannapolis to figure things out after their dreadful start to the 2021 season and I think this series may be an indication of things to come. The Cannon Ballers look to extend their win streak to four games tomorrow night with White Sox No. 3 prospect Matt Thompson taking the bump, looking to clean things up from his last few outings where he’s given up 11 runs across his last three appearances.
Photo credit: Michael Guariglia/FutureSox
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