Ballers Overcome Early Struggles to Swipe Victory over Fireflies Thursday

Pitcher’s Battle Lands in Favor of Kannapolis in Extra-Innings Tussle with Columbia

By Dan Helotie | Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

May 7, 2026

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers completed a gutsy comeback to take a series lead with a, 3-2, walk-off win over the Columbia Fireflies Thursday night at Atrium Health Ballpark. With the win, Kannapolis eats into their deficit in the Carolina League South division, leaping to 12-18 and forcing

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers completed a gutsy comeback to take a series lead with a, 3-2, walk-off win over the Columbia Fireflies Thursday night at Atrium Health Ballpark.

With the win, Kannapolis eats into their deficit in the Carolina League South division, leaping to 12-18 and forcing Columbia to two games below .500 at 14-16.

RHP Riley Eikhoff set his season-high with a six-inning outing, allowing six hits, two earned runs with six strikeouts. LHP Jackson Nove followed by going two innings, retiring all six batters he faced in order, with the last five of his outs being by way of the K. RHP Marco Barrios (W, 3-1) secured the victory with two shutout innings. Barrios gave up just one hit and punched out four Fireflies. As a staff, the three arms combined for 15 strikeouts.

After three hitless innings from both sides, the Fireflies jumped out to an early lead into the fourth inning. With two runners in scoring position, Josh Hammond brought a run home with an RBI groundout and Hyungchan Um singled through the right side to drive in the second Columbia run of the frame.

More excellent pitching stole the show until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Ballers broke up a Fireflies no-hit bid with a D’Angelo Tejada double. Tejada later advanced to third and then scored on a balk with Billy Carlson at the plate.

As the game progressed to the bottom of the ninth, with Kannapolis trailing, 2-1, James Taussig reached on a quirky infield single. Marcelo Alcala then scorched a ball into the left-center field gap that brought around pinch-runner Abraham Nunez to tie the game at, 2-2.

After a scoreless top of the 10th, Arxy Hernandez advanced to third base on a Tejada sacrifice bunt. A wild pitch skipped away from the Fireflies catcher and Hernandez dashed home to steal the win for Kannapolis, 3-2.

The Ballers play game four of their six-game series with the Columbia Fireflies on Friday night with RHP Max Banks making his seventh start of the season. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m. from Atrium Health Ballpark.

The 2026 Kannapolis Cannon Ballers season is underway at Atrium Health Ballpark! Single-game tickets, season ticket packages, group experiences and 10-game mini plans for the 2026 season are available for purchase now. Call the Cannon Ballers ticket office at (704) 932-3267 or visit kcballers.com for more information.