Kannapolis, N.C. – Two homers and strong relief outings paced the Charleston RiverDogs in their 8-4 win versus the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers on Wednesday afternoon at Atrium Health Ballpark.
Brailer Guerrero opened scoring in the top of the second, by belting a solo homer to right center that gave the RiverDogs a 1-0 lead. The homer left his bat at 110 miles per hour and traveled 466 feet, clearing the entire ballpark.
In the top of the third, Charleston added on two more when Derek Datil lined a two-run homer over the tall wall in right to make it 3-0. The homer marked Datil’s second pro homer and first at the Single-A level.
Kannapolis tacked on three in the third and one in the fourth to cut the RiverDogs lead to 5-4.
The RiverDogs bullpen settled in shortly after as Trey Pooser, Dominic Niman, Jacob Hartlaub and Mason Nichols combined for five scoreless frames. As a group, they limited Kannapolis to just two baserunners. Pooser earned his team-leading fourth win of the season in the process.
Charleston added on two more in the sixth on a Yirer Garcia RBI single and Caden Bodine sacrifice fly, and one more in the eighth on a Dean Moss RBI single to cap scoring at 8-4.
With the win, Charleston moved to 9-8 while Kannapolis fell to 5-12. The two return to the ballpark tomorrow for game three of series with first pitch slated for 7:00 p.m. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the RiverDogs Broadcast Network.