On a very hot and humid night at Canal Park, the crowd still showed up in full force. Tonight's game had a lot of excitement, and it wasn't just for the Barberton Fried Chicken and Hot Rice name and uniform change for this game. Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams was here tonight to get in his what is believed to be his last start before joining the Guardians rotation.
After two scoreless innings for Williams, in the 3rd the Rumble Ponies center fielder Jaylen Palmer doubled off the right center wall. Catcher Drake Osborn followed with his own double to right scoring Palmer from second base. Williams escaped the 3rd inning with no further damage done.
In the bottom half the Fried Chicken bats got cooking. After 2 walks by Huff and Frias, a Yordys Valdes ground out to 1st moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd. A C.J. Kayfus 3-run homer to right field got the Chicken on the board and the lead at 3-1.
The Fried Chicken and Hot Rice weren't done there. A Petey Halpin single allowed Khalil Watson to come to bat with one on. Watson smashed a 2-run home run to right center field to extend Barberton's lead to 5-1.
The hits kept coming for the Chicken. After a Huff walk, Valdes singled to move Huff to 3rd base. C.J. Kayfus stayed hot with another 3-run homer to make it 8-1 Barberton Chicken and Hot Rice. That made 6 RBI on the night for Kayfus from the leadoff spot.
Williams in the 5th inning gave up a single with 2 outs but earned the 3rd out on a liner by Binghamton's shortstop Wyatt Young to 1st base. That ended Gavin's night. Williams pitched 5 innings, giving up 1 earned run, on 4 hits and striking out 4. He had 66 pitches with 47 strikes. All and all a solid outing for a guy ready to join his Guardian teammates.
The top of the 7th Binghamton gained a run back on aa Wyatt Young RBI single. In the bottom of the 7th The Hot Rice put a three spot on the board on a Milan Tolentino 3-run home run making it 11-2 Barberton. The Rumble Ponies tacked on another in the top of the 8th on a Jeremiah Jackson RBI single. They tacked on one more in the top of the 9th on an RBI groundout to make the final 11-4. The Fried Chicken offense and a solid start by Williams highlighted the night.
C.J. Kayfus was the offensive star of the night going 2/6 with the 2 homers and 6 RBI. Our Tavin McCully spoke with Kayfus after his big offensive night.
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