Dominating pitching carried the Hill City Howlers past the Kannapolis CannonBallers, 5-1, on Friday evening.
Erigaldi Perez and Manuel Osorio combined to strike out 15 CannonBallers across their nine innings of work. In addition, they only surrendered one run on five hits.
Kannapolis took advantage of sloppy defense by the Howlers in the second inning as a throwing error on the catcher put a runner in scoring position. Two batters later, Landon Hodge earned his first professional base hit, putting the CannonBallers up 1-0.
In the fourth, the Howlers jumped in front behind five straight baserunners. A double from Deiten LaChance drove home the first as he plugged the gap in left-center. Two batters later, Johan Rodriguez followed suit with a gap-splitting double of his own, scoring two and moving Hill City up 3-1.
The Howlers added a bit of insurance in the sixth. LaChance led off the inning with his second double of the game. Once again, it was Rodriguez who drove him home, this time with a sacrifice fly to right, pushing the lead to three.
Erigaldi Perez pitched a gem. Six innings of one-run baseball while striking out a career-high nine set him in line for the win.
In the seventh, Alejandro Blasco dealt a blow to the CannonBallers hopes, blooping a single into center, scoring Alejandro Garza to move Hill City up 5-1.
Manuel Osorio came on in relief and dominated out of the pen, striking out six across three innings. In the effort, Osorio earned his first save for the Howlers.
Hill City will look to win their first series since the beginning of May as they battle Kannapolis again on Saturday evening at City Stadium. Tickets are available for the 6:30 p.m. first pitch at hchowlers.com.