RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesRoch Cholowsky’s first professional homer highlights a big night for the Dash. | (Winston-Salem Dash/Instagram)
Charlotte Knights 8, Durham Bulls 5 White Sox fans dreaming of Shane Smith as the 2026 rotation savior, you might want to look away. Not happening. The 2025 All-Star got shelled for three runs in the first, two more in the fifth, and that was the night. Fortunately for him, the bats bailed him out. They plated four runs in the bottom of the first, courtesy of a Korey Lee two-run shot and an Andy Weber triple, 4-3 Knights (60-51).
Charlotte kept it going in the second. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Caden Connor rolled a grounder and plated a run, 5-3. Durham came back to tie it in the fifth, but Riley Unroe answered with a two-run bomb in the home half, 7-5, Knights. That was the ballgame, but Connor tacked on an RBI single in the sixth for fun. The bullpen tossed five scoreless — job done.
MVP Korey Lee: 1-for-5, R, 2 RBI, HR
Runners-Up Caden Connor: 1-for-4, R, 2 RBI, BB, K Andy Weber: 1-for-3, R, 2 RBI, BB, 3B Riley Unroe: 1-for-3, 2 RBI, BB, 2B Jairo Iriarte: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 K, W Tyler Schweitzer: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, H Garrett Schoenle: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, S
Cold Cat Shane Smith: 4 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 B, 4 K
Rocket City Trash Pandas 6, Birmingham Barons 3 The Barons (42-63) came out swinging, putting up a two-spot in the first thanks to a pair of doubles from Dylan Campbell and Caleb Bonemer and a gift by the Trash Pandas’ shortstop. Unfortunately, the lead didn’t have much of a shelf life. Starter Lucas Gordon gave those runs right back over the next two frames, and things went completely sideways when Jerald Rosado took over in the fourth and promptly detonated the whole thing with a four-run mess, putting Birmingham in a 6-2 hole.
Jordan Sprinkle tried to breathe a little life into the offense with an RBI double in the sixth to trim the deficit to 6-3, but that was the last peep from the Barons’ bats. Mathias LaCombe and Liam Paddack combined for four scoreless innings to keep Rocket City from doing any more damage, but with the offense already clocked out for the night, this one was cooked.
MVP Jordan Sprinkle: 2-for-3, RBI, BB, 2B
Runners-Up Dylan Campbell: 2-for-3, R, 2 BB, 2B Caleb Bonemer: 2-for-5, R, RBI, 2B Jorge Corona: 2-for-3, BB Samuel Zavala: 1-for-4, R, 2B, CS, 2 K
Cold Cat Jerald Rosado: 1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 2 BB, L
Winston-Salem 14, Asheville Tourists 7 The Dash (58-47) shook off a bumpy start and turned the night into a slugfest. Grant Umberger stumbled out of the gate, balking runners to second and third before the defense did him no favors. Roch Cholowsky, fresh off being crowned the No. 1 overall pick, booted a grounder for his first pro miscue, and Asheville plated two unearned. However, Winston-Salem immediately started the comeback. Javier Mogollón worked a two-out walk, stole second and raced home on a Nick McLain RBI double. The Dash followed the same script in the second, with Ben Hartl working a two-out walk and Derek Cerda doubling him home to knot things at 2-2.
From there, the offense floored it. Mogollón launched a solo shot in the third to give Winston-Salem the lead, and the Dash blew things open with a five-run fourth highlighted by a Kyle Lodise homer and a two-run double from Cholowsky. They weren’t finished. Wes Kath went deep in the fifth before Cholowsky delivered the big one — a three-run blast for his first professional home run — as the Dash piled up four more runs.
Things got unnecessarily interesting in the seventh when Christian Oppor completely lost the strike zone. He walked five, uncorked three wild pitches and allowed four runs without giving up a hit before Seth Keener was summoned to stop the bleeding. Winston-Salem answered with two more in the eighth on a Kath RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to Ely Brown. Asheville scratched across one last run in the ninth, but by then, the damage was done. The Dash had turned an early 2-0 hole into a 14-7 rout, with Cholowsky’s first professional homer putting an exclamation point on his breakout night.
MVP Roch Cholowsky: 2-for-6, R, 5 RBI, HR, 2B
Runners-Up Nick McLain: 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 2B Wes Kath: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, HR, K Derek Cerda: 3-for-4, 2 R, RBI, BB, 2B Kyle Lodise: 1-for-4, 2 R, RBI, BB, HR, 2 K Drew Conover: 1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K, W
Cold Cat Christian Oppor: 2/3 IP, 0 H, 4 R, 5 BB
Charleston RiverDogs 2, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 1 The Ballers (54-51) got things rolling in the first when Jaden Fauske slapped a single, and Matthew Boughton got a free pass on catcher’s interference. Then, a little chaos. Billy Carlson’s grounder erased Fauske at third, Stiven Flores whiffed, but Grayson Fitzwater came through with a two-out base hit to plate Boughton for a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, that was it for offensive fireworks. The RiverDogs answered in the second, and the game flatlined at 1-1 until the eighth, when Charleston finally broke through against Daniel Wright and took a 2-1 lead. The Ballers went down quietly in the ninth, and a promising first inning turned out to be their only act.
MVP Grayson Fitzwater: 1-for-4, RBI, K
Runners-Up Jaden Fauske: 1-for-4, K Braden Holcomb: 1-for-4, 2B, 2 K
Cold Cat Daniel Wright: 1 1/3 IP, 3 H, R, K, L
DSL Arizona Red 6, DSL White Sox 4 The DSL White Sox (17-28) found themselves staring at a deficit early, with starter Roderic Ramirez serving up a three-spot in the first. But give credit to the kids — they didn’t roll over. In the second, Felix Lebron worked a walk, swiped a bag, and Samuel Luis cashed him in for the Sox’s first run. Fernando Graterol tied it up with a two-run blast in the third, and by the fifth, three straight singles from Ronald Cardozo, Orlando Patino and Lebron had the Sox ahead, 4-3. That joy was short-lived. The D-backs answered with a two-run jack of their own in the bottom half, snatching the lead right back, then tacked on another tally in the sixth for the 6-4 final.
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