HobbsDailyReport.com
CABRERA
FALTER
LAKEWOOD, N..J. – The BlueClaws scored all their runs in the opening inning and their pitching limited Hickory to four hits in a 2-0 victory on Saturday night in South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball.
Lakewood (55-50, 15-20 second half) had six hits – two by Henri Lartigue – to snap the visiting Crawdads’ win streak at three games.
The teams play a series finale on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. before Hickory moves on to start a series Monday night at Hagerstown (Md.).
Lakewood starter Bailey Falter (5-6) and reliever Ismael Cabrera (second save of the season) combined to shut the Crawdads down.
They worked with a two-run after the first inning, with Lakewood scoring both of its runs with two outs.
Arquimedes Gamboa started the game by walking. After a strikeout, Crawdads starter Demarcus Evans made a bad throw trying to pick Gamboa off. Gamboa advanced to third and then scored after another strikeout on a double by Darick Hall. Lartigue added an RBI single, and that was all of the game’s scoring.
A crowd of 4,583 saw Falter throw seven innings to get a win. He gave up three hits and had nine strikeouts. Cabrera pitched two innings, giving up a hit, and struck out three.
Evans (2-5) took the loss for Hickory (46-59, 19-16). He pitched two innings, gave up two runs (both earned), walked four and struck out five.
The Crawdads’ only hits were singles in the fourth and seventh innings by Leody Taveras, a single by Yohel Pozo in the fifth and Tanner Gardner’s leadoff single in the ninth as a pinch-hitter.
After Gardner singled, Cabrera quickly got two strikeouts and a game-ending pop up to end the game.
The Crawdads are in third place in the SAL’s Northern Division, two games behind Delmarva (Md.) and a game behind Hagerstown. They’ve widened their lead over fourth-place Greensboro to 1 ½ games, and West Virginia has pulled into a tie for fourth with the Grasshoppers.
For Saturday’s boxscore, click the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_07_29_hicafx_lwdafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448