Bisons throttle Charlotte 11-4 for first win of series

Charlotte, N.C. - On Thursday night at Truist Field, the Buffalo Bisons scored four runs in two separate innings, Josh Winckowski and Gage Stanifer shined in their debuts with the team in a bullpen game, and the Herd defeated the Charlotte Knights 11-4 in the third game of their second-to-last series of the season.

Adisyn Coffey and Winckowski started the game for Charlotte and Buffalo, respectively. They both set down the opposition in order in the first inning, then navigated around leadoff doubles in the second.

Yohendrick Piñango lofted a soft fly ball in between the left and center fielders for his double for Buffalo in the top half, but couldn’t score after advancing to third on a groundout. In the bottom, Tim Elko plugged the right-center gap, but Winckowski rebounded after allowing him to reach third on a wild pitch by retiring the next three and keeping Elko at third.

The scoring started in the third as Lenyn Sosa, who played 155 games with the Knights while in the Chicago White Sox organization, drilled a ball of the batter’s eye for a leadoff homer and a 1-0 Buffalo lead. With two outs, Rhylan Thomas singled to knock Coffey out of the game. Then facing reliever Peyton Pallette, Thomas stole second, then Daz Cameron, in his first game with Buffalo since August 14, doubled Thomas in to make it 2-0 Buffalo. The Herd then loaded the bases, but left them loaded.

Winckowski exited after two innings, allowing just one hit while striking out two in his debut for the Herd. Gage Stanifer replaced him to make his Triple-A debut. He struck out the first two before walking Rikuu Nishida, then allowing an RBI triple to Riley Unroe, which got Charlotte on the board. Stanifer bounced back with a 1-2-3 fourth, finishing with three strikeouts, all of which came in the third.

Chad Dallas came in for Buffalo in the fifth inning, and Junior Perez led off the frame for the Knights with a home run to tie the game at 2.

Buffalo brought home four runs in the sixth inning against Tanner McDougal and Jairo Iriarte. Piñango answered Perez’s leadoff homer with one of his own to give Buffalo the lead back. After a groundout, the Herd strung together five consecutive baserunners as they batted around. Sosa, C.J. Stubbs and Thomas each had RBI hits to help give them a 6-2 lead.

Buffalo continued teeing off against Iriarte in the seventh. Davis Schneider reached on a throwing error to start, then the Herd notched four hits in the inning to drive in four runs to make it 10-2, highlighted by a two-run triple by Rudy Martin Jr.

Daniel Guerra pitched a scoreless seventh for Buffalo despite allowing a two-out walk. He then walked the bases loaded with one out in the eighth, prompting Brendan Cellucci to enter. He issued a bases-loaded walk, then allowed an RBI fielder’s choice to Ryan Galanie before escaping the inning with the score 11-4.

Cellucci walked the bases with no one out in the ninth, but allowed no runs to cross the plate by striking out the last three to end the game.

The Bisons and Knights will play the fourth game of this six-game set on Friday at Truist Field in Charlotte at 7:04 p.m. RHP CJ Van Eyk will start for the Bisons. You can listen to the action on The Bet 1520 AM, the Audacy app, and bisons.com starting at 6:45 p.m. with Pat Malacaro.