Rodney Theophile spun another gem, Brady House reached base twice in his return from the IL, but the FredNat bullpen fell apart late in a 5-2 loss to the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers on Friday night at Virginia Credit Union Stadium. The game was tied 1-1 heading to the 8th, but Kannapolis scored four times in the top of the 8th inning to win.
Theophile gave up four hits, one unearned run, and struck out eight men with no walks. He lowers his Single-A best ERA to 0.82 on the season in 34 innings pitched. The FredNats also commited three errors behind Theophile, and he was able to get out of trouble all but once in the 2nd inning. Kannapolis got their first run on a single and then a throwing error in the outfield that allowed the runner to score from 3rd base to make it 1-0 Kannapolis.
Fredericksburg tied the game up in the 3rd when Branden Boissiere drove in Jeremy De La Rosa with an infield single off the glove of the Kannapolis 1st baseman. De La Rosa scored his league-leading 32nd run of the season to knot things at one.
That’s where the score stood until the 8th, when Theophile exited. Marlon Perez made his FredNat debut and struggled, lasting only two thirds of an inning and allowing three hits and four earned runs. Orlando Ribalta got the final four outs for the FredNats.
De La Rosa picked up his league-leading 28th RBI in the 9th inning, but that was as close as the FredNats would get in the loss.
Kannapolis has won three out of the first four of the series and will look to win the series tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. at Virginia Credit Union Stadium. The FredNats have yet to lose a series this season. Andry Lara will start tomorrow for Fredericksburg.
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Chris Graham
