First-Place Emperors Rack Up 11 Runs in Series Winner

ROME, Ga – E.J. Exposito homered for third time in the series in Sunday’s 11-1 rout of the Hickory Crawdads.

Exposito tied Aberdeen’s Creed Willems and Asheville’s Cam Fisher for the league-lead in homeruns with his eighth-inning 370-foot shot to left field. It was Expo’s sixth of the season and third of the series against Hickory. He wasn’t the only swinging penguin that swung it well Sunday afternoon. Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. snapped an 0-for-17 streak with a 3-for-5 day at the plate, recording his ninth double of the season and scoring twice.

A seven-run bottom of the fourth inning saw 12 Emperors come to the plate and was fueled by base hits from Exposito, Kilpatrick, Nick Ward, Ethan Workinger, and Stephen Paolini. The four through nine batters and leadoff batter Kilpatrick would all reach base and score in the inning. Workinger and Sabin Ceballos would team-up to add a run on two singles in the sixth.

Jhancarlos Lara made his much-anticipated season debut and worked around a handful of walks to finish three full innings. Lara struck out five and gave up just one hit. Landon Harper earned his second winning decision of the year, handling the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings with ease while punching out six. Elison Joseph and Tyree Thompson were called upon in the eighth and ninth and effectively put away the Crawdads.

Rome takes the series four games to two over Hickory and, in doing so, goes two games up on second-place Bowling Green heading into a six gamer against Brooklyn.