Kannapolis Cannon Ballers are postseason-bound!

Sunday shutout + extra-innings heartbreaker for Columbia cinches the deal!

With a masterful, 6-0 shutout over the Delmarva Shorebirds and a heartbreaking loss for the pursuing Columbia Fireflies (a walk off at the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 11-10 in 11 innings), the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers clinched their first playoff berth in six seasons.

Improving to 39-23 behind another masterful Lucas Gordon start (five scoreless innings and the win), Kannapolis clinched the first half title for the Carolina League’s South Division. The team, two games worse than .500 just five weeks ago, exploded to win 25 of 32 and clinch the postseason.

The only big blow of the game came in the top of the first, as No. 2 hitter Albertson Asigen lined a home run out to center field, his fourth of the season. That would prove to be all that Gordon and Luke Bell, Mark McLaughlin and Jesús Mendez following him in the pen needed to grasp victory. All told, Delmarva was held to just six hits in the shutout (all singles) and three walks. The Kanny staff threw up just four punchouts in the game, however, meaning this was a little-things game as well: The defense was sound, with just a Ryan Burrowes error against all the balls in play, and speed played a role as well, with four SBs without being caught. Rikuu Nishida swiped two bases as part of a 2-for-4, two runs, walk day, pushing his season total to a Carolina League fifth-best 24.

With their business taken care of, the Cannon Ballers had to turn to scoreboard-watching to see how the evening game at Myrtle Beach played out. There the Fireflies, fighting for their playoff lives, had taken a 6-3 lead in the top of the seventh, but the 26-35 Pelicans bristled up and punched Columbia for a five-tally after the seventh-inning stretch. The walk-off win came on a two-out, two-run double from Pelican Drew Bowser, so Kanny, you owe that fella an Edible Arrangement.

Gordon, a 22-year-old lefty out of the University of Texas drafted by the White Sox last summer, improved to 5-1 with a 2.04 ERA. He’s averaging almost 5 1⁄3 innings per start, which may not seem overwhelming but as a first full-year pro indicates both stamina and an ability to keep Kannapolis in games. Gordon is almost certain to see a promotion to Winston-Salem for the season’s second half.

The Cannon Ballers have run up a dominant run differential in the first half, now sitting at +140 (translating to a 45-17 record, so there have been quite a few routs this spring); that is 99 runs better than the next-best club in the Carolina League, a jaw-dropping figure if ever there was one. It almost goes without saying that with 348 runs scored the CBs lead the league and that 208 allowed also leads all pitching/defenses. Kanny’s run tally just barely leads the Carolina League, but the club has allowed 42 fewer runs than any other rival.

Congratulations to manager Pat Leyland and the entire Kannapolis club for a triumphant first half — and an absolutely amazing five weeks of baseball to push to the postseason!

[No Cold Cats poll on a division-winning day.]