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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There’s no doubt that the current Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders road trip could be worse.

But it’s not exactly going the way Scranton/Wilkes-Barre had hoped.

For the third time in four games, the RailRiders blew a lead and lost 8-7 to Charlotte on Thursday night at BB&T Ballpark.

On Thursday night, the RailRiders let two leads get away, with the last one fading away in the bottom of the ninth when the Knights’ Neftali Soto and Matt Davidson each hit solo homers off Tyler Webb. – with Davidson’s fifth blast of the season winning the game. It was the second time on the trip that the RailRiders lost on a walk-off home run.

Webb was called upon in the bottom of the ninth while looking to save the game after the RailRiders broke a 6-6 tie in the top of the frame – thanks to a run-scoring single by Rob Refsnyder that put the RailRiders ahead 7-6.

Earlier in the game SWB led 6-0 entering the bottom of the fourth as they roughed up Kyle Drabek. An RBI double by Kyle Roller in the first inning got the RailRiders on the board with a 1-0 lead. Ramon Flores (2 for 4) singled in the second run of a three-run first inning.

The team wasn’t done yet. Roller (2 for 5) clubbed his second homer of the season in the third for a 4-0 lead and Austin Romine went deep for the first time this season leading off the fourth. Rehabbing Jose Pirela, who finished 1 for 4, doubled in a run in the fourth, putting the RailRiders in front 6-0.

Right-hander Bryan Mitchell, who had been terrific in his previous two starts allowing just two runs in 14 combined innings, was cruising while not allowing a hit through the first three innings. The Knights batted around in the bottom of the fourth, scoring three runs to chase Mitchell from the contest and trim the lead to 6-3.

Charlotte pulled within a run in the fifth at 6-5 with one run scoring on a throwing error by Pirela, who was playing third base. The Knights tied it up at 6-6 in the seventh against Branden Pinder.

The series in Charlotte continues tonight at 7:05 with left-hander Matt Tracy (0-0, 6.00) taking the hill for the RailRiders and being opposed by righty Shawn Haviland (0-1, 3.45).