KANNAPOLIS — This is a story about how the Intimidators got their groove back Saturday night.
The South Atlantic League’s winningest team played a little bit of power ball and a little bit of small ball at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium, where it snapped a two-game losing streak with a more-gritty-than-pretty 5-1 victory over Macon.
“I think two is enough,” relieved manager Razor Shines said after Kannapolis (36-13) earned a split of its four-game series with the Braves. “I’m not saying that’s as many as we’ll lose in a row all year, but when it gets to that number the kids start looking around and say, ‘Hey, let’s go.’”
The kid who sparked the turnaround was 18-year old infielder Chris Amador, whose solo home run with two out in the bottom of the fifth inning tied the score 1-1. Amador took an 0-1 fastball from Macon lefty Ben Kozlowski and launched it just over the left-field wall for his second professional homer.
“The hit by Amador got us off the snide,” said Shines. “We needed something like that. After that things started to click for us.”
After that, the Intimidators must have smelled blood in the water. They began attacking pitches and running the bases aggressively, threatening to score again in both the fifth and sixth innings.
“We definitely started feeling more confident,” said first-basemen Casey Rogowski. “That’s the thing about this team — we’re never too far away. Even though we had dropped two in a row, nothing fell apart.”
Just about everything did for Macon (28-22) in the last of the seventh. The visitors committed three errors — including two on the same play — while Kannapolis batted around and scored four runs on six hits. It started when Michael Spidale led off with a high-chop infield hit to the left side. He advanced all the way to third base when Kozlowski’s pickoff attempt at first sailed wide and skipped down the right-field line.
“You know Mike’s been struggling a little bit,” said Shines. “But he’s the type of kid who continues to battle. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
Teammate Wally Rosa delivered the go-ahead run with an opposite-field single to right. Then Humberto Quintero’s bunt single put two runners on with none out, presenting switch-hitter Guillermo Reyes with a chance to break the game open.
“I want to make it go,” he said through an interpreter. “We needed more.”
They got more when Reyes smashed a hit-and-run grounder to third-baseman Asdrubal Oropeza, who stepped on the bag for a forceout before making a wild throw across the diamond to first. “And then I just keep going,” Reyes said. “I see the ball pass and I go.”
Rosa scored easily for a 3-1 lead and Reyes wound up on third following a misplay at second base. “It was an absolute circus,” said teammate John Lackaff. “The third baseman made a nice play to grab it but everything kind of went nuts after that.”
Macon’s seventh-inning wretch continued when Lackaff drilled a two-out, run-scoring double to left-center and Rogowski — the league’s second-leading hitter with a .335 batting average — bounced a clutch RBI-single to right.
“Casey Rogowski is an all-star,” said Shines. “If he doesn’t start in the all-star game, then nobody should be there.”
Intimidators’ starting pitcher Corwin Malone received a no-decision despite fanning 11 batters and allowing no earned runs in six innings.
“I got behind a lot of guys and went deep into some counts,” he said after failing to win his fifth game of the month. “But I knew what I wanted to do. I threw the fastball for strikes and when I got ahead I came with the breaking ball. That’s where most of my strikeouts came from.”
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NOTES: The victory went to left-handed reliever Dan Mozingo (4-1), who struck out the side and walked two in the decisive seventh. ... The Intimidators went 5-2 on their homestand. They begin an eight-game road trip at Savannah on Monday. ... Japanese author Bert Shimada, researching a book about minor league baseball in America, was among the 4,208 fans.
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