The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (33-40, 3-4 second half) carried a 3-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning on Saturday night and had the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (39-33, 4-3 second half) down to their final out until a thunderstorm halted action and caused an hourlong delay.
The game ultimately reverted to the last out of the eighth inning and was called final with Fayetteville winning 3-2.
Kannapolis scored both of its runs in the top of the first against Alimber Santa. Chris Lanzilli and Logan Glass strung together a pair of two-out singles to give the Ballers the advantage before Fayetteville grabbed the bats.
Santa did not allow a run the rest of the way, going 3.2 innings and striking out six.
Dauri Lorenzo quickly got the Woodpeckers on the board with a first-inning single against Tyler Schweitzer that drove home Luis Encarnacion. Leosdany Molina leveled the game in the fourth with a groundout to shortstop that scored John Garcia for the 2-2 tie.
Molina delivered again in the sixth inning with Garcia at third base. He flared a shallow pop fly to right field that dropped in the grass over the outstretched glove of the second baseman and provided the 3-2 lead.
Andrew Taylor (W, 4-3) held it down from the bullpen for the rest of the night, allowing just two singles over four innings of scoreless relief while striking out nine, his second-highest strikeout total of the season. Jeremy Molero took over on the mound for the save opportunity in the top of the ninth and allowed the tying runner to reach before the game was ruled final.
The series is now level 2-2 and continues Sunday afternoon with the first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m.
Fayetteville is projected to start right-hander Amilcar Chirinos (0-2, 5.89 ERA). The Cannon Ballers will counter with left-hander Noah Schultz (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
The game will be broadcast on radio free at https://www.milb.com/fayetteville/fans/audio-listen-live.
Box score: https://www.milb.com/gameday/727990
