Ronnie Shore and Troy Fleming kept the Raiders close over the first five innings with three-run homers over the short left- field fence, then the Raiders erupted for six runs on only one hit for a come-from-behind victory in the sixth inning.

South, 4-3, had had only one home run(by Tim Cook) before the two on Thursday.

“We really weren’t expecting to come out here hitting home runs, but whatever works, it works,” said Shore, a sophomore who is starting at shortstop for the second season.

The Wonders (2-4) held a 7-3 lead when Shore came to bat with two teammates on base in the bottom of the fifth.

“I was trying to relax. The first two at-bats of the game,I hadn’t been very relaxed. I had been really tense,” said Shore, who drilled Kannapolis starter Adam Russell’s offering. “It was a fastball up in the zone. I think it was kind of a mistake, but it was right where I like it.”

He came to bat again with the bases-loaded and a chance for a seven-RBI game, but got hit in the back with a pitch to force in the tying run.

“I was thinking about that (seven RBIs), but I’ll take one for the team. That’s fine,” said Shore.

South coach Dwayne Fink said of the two homers: “I still don’t know how powerful we are, because left field’s short, and, on certain nights, depending on the temperature and things like that, the ball will fly out of here. You saw that on their side, too.”

Coach Empsy Thompson’s Wonders took an early 4-0 lead in the third inning when Nate Emerson hit a two-run homer down the line in left, then Ryan Craft followed with a solo shot to left. Steve Swann added a two-run homer down the line in the seventh.

“We work hard in practice on our hitting,” said Fink. “These guys have worked really hard on their swings. A lot of times you coach kids on their swings and hitting and they just come into a game and do what they want to do. That’s not the case this year. Hopefully, that’s going to pay off for us, and I think in a lot of ways it did tonight.”

South wound up with nine hits, including two each by starting pitcher Nick Mayle and Joel Reyes, who doubled in a run in the six-run sixth inning.

Trailing 7-6 going into the last of the sixth, Kannapolis reliever Josh Lee walked the first two batters, Jared Wingler and Dereck Efird. Andrew Petty then relieved Lee and walked Chris Wagner to load the bases. Petty then hit Shore in the back to force in the tying run. Efird scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. Two more walks, a throwing error, a fielder’s-choice grounder and Reyes’ double made it 12-9.

“One thing we pretty much figured out about this group: They don’t quit. They’ve got a lot of fight in them, said Fink. “This is real good for us this early in the season to know that you can come back. It kind of let’s them know that that fight’s worth it.”