One day after recording their biggest victory of the season, the BlueClaws bats fell silent in a 6-3 loss to Kannapolis on Thursday night at FirstEnergy Park. Lakewood had no trouble offensively on Wednesday night, tallying a 10-1 win, but on Thursday night it was a completely different story. The 'Claws managed just three hits in the final six innings and could not take full advantage of the few early opportunities they were afforded.
Jason Rice (1-2) was erratic at the start for Kannapolis, but managed to settle down and find the strike zone enough to survive five bumpy innings. He walked a pair of hitters in the first inning and also lost control of two wild pitches to stake the BlueClaws a 2- 0 lead.
His wildness also contributed to the BlueClaws final run in the third, when he allowed three hits and walked one, allowing a RBI double from Matt Rizzotti that tied the game, 3-3.
But Rice faced just the minimum six batters over the next two innings and did enough to keep his team in the game.
And while Rice was managing without his best stuff, Julian Sampson could not do the same for the BlueClaws. Sampson failed to make it through the fourth inning for the third time this season, giving up three runs in three innings of work. He was replaced by Yen-Feng Lin (0-1) to start the fourth inning after giving up five hits and three walks.
Lin took his first loss of the season, giving up a pair of runs in the sixth inning. Dale Mollenhauer knocked in the game-winning run with a double off of Lin with one out. Christian Marrero extended the lead to 5-3 with a base hit to center.
Henry Mabee pitched the final two innings for the Intimidators for his fifth save in five opportunities. Matt Rizzotti was the only BlueClaw with more than one hit, finishing two-for-three with an RBI. Michael Taylor went 0-for-4 to snap a 14-game home hitting streak.
The BlueClaws will make another attempt to claim the series victory on Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at FirstEnergy Park. Jacob Diekman (0-3, 5.54) will square off against Anthony Carter (3-0, 1.61) in the series finale. There will be post-game fireworks following the last out, thanks to Toyota and Scion World of Lakewood.