G-Braves crush Knights, 12-3

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Gwinnett Braves put up five runs in two separate innings and ran away with a 12-3 win over the Charlotte Knights Monday night in game one of their four-game series at BB&T Ballpark.
 
The G-Braves (62-53) are now 14-3 in their last 17 games and picked up a half game on the idle Columbus Clippers, who lead the International League Wild Card race by 1.0 game over second-place Gwinnett.
 
It was also the fifth straight win for Gwinnett right-handed starter Kanekoa Texeira (W, 5-3), who went 5.0 innings with four hits, two earned runs, two walks and four strikeouts. 
 
The first five-run inning for the G-Braves came in the top of the third after Daniel Castro led off with a single to left off of Charlotte right-handed starting pitcher Kyle Drabek (L, 6-7).  Jordan Lennerton then walked and both moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt by Luis Mateo.  Mallex Smith followed with a double off the wall in left, scoring Castro and Lennerton for a 2-0 lead. 
 
Eric Young, Jr. singled to right, moving Smith to third and a walk to Christian Bethancourt loaded the bases.  With a steady rain coming down, Drabek walked Cedric Hunter with the bases loaded to push across Smith and extend the lead to 3-0.  Sean Kazmar then doubled off the wall in left field, plating Young for a 4-0 advantage, and Todd Cunningham drove in Young with an infield single for a 5-0 lead after two-and-a-half innings.
 
Chris Jacobs plated the first Charlotte (61-56) run with a solo homer to right off of Texeira to lead off the bottom of the fifth that cut the G-Braves’ lead to 5-1.
 
Gwinnett quickly struck for another five run inning in the top of the sixth.  Cunningham greeted Drabek with a single to left, and Castro walked.  Drabek was pulled in favor of right-handed reliever Miguel Chalas.  He gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Lennerton and Mateo to push the lead to 7-1. Young then reached on a force play that allowed Lennerton to score to make it 8-1.  Bethancourt followed with a double to left-center field, scoring Young, Jr. from first for a 9-1 lead, and a single to right by Hunter plated Bethancourt to make it 10-1.
 
The Knights picked up a run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Tyler Colvin to cut the lead to 10-2, and they added a run in the bottom of the seventh off of Gwinnett right-handed reliever David Peterson to make it 10-3.
 
But Bethancourt blasted his second RBI double of the game in the top of the eighth off of left-hander Jarrett Casey to score Mateo, who had doubled earlier in the inning, and run the lead to 11-3. Cunningham and Castro combined to produce the final run of the night with back-to-back doubles to right field in the top of the ninth off right-hander J.B. Wendelken.
 
Peterson worked 2.0 innings in relief of Texeira.  He allowed three hits and one earned run while walking one and striking out one.  Right-hander David Carpenter went 1.0 inning with two strikeouts, and lefty reliever Hunter Cervenka finished the game with 1.0 inning, two walks, a wild pitch and two strikeouts. 
 
Drabek worked 5.0 inning plus two batters in the sixth.  He allowed eight hits with seven earned runs, four walks and one strikeout.  Chalas pitched 1.0 inning with four hits and three earned runs.  Casey went 2.0 innings with two hits, one earned run and one walk.  Wendelken worked 1.0 inning with two hits, one earned run and one strikeout.
 
Every batter in the G-Braves lineup had a hit in the 16-hit attack.  Cunningham was 3-for-5 with a double, two runs and an RBI.  Hunter was 2-for-3 with a run, two RBIs and two walks.  Mateo, Castro and Bethancourt were each 2-for-4.  Bethancourt added two doubles and two RBIs.  The seven doubles for the game equaled a season high for the G-Braves.  The team also pounded out seven doubles in a 7-4 win on July 2 at Charlotte.
 
Drew Garcia was Charlotte’s top hitter with a 2-for-4 night. 
 
The G-Braves and Knights meet in game two of the four-game series at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday night at BB&T Ballpark.  Right-handed pitcher Tyrell Jenkins (3-2, 3.03) will start for Gwinnett, and righty Brad Penny (5-6, 4.21) gets the start for the Knights.  Tony Schiavone has the call beginning at 6:30 p.m. on 97.7 FM and WSBRadio.com.