HobbsDailyReport.com
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Bobby Dalbec’s seventh-inning grand slam carried Greenville (S.C.) past visiting Hickory 7-4 on Saturday night in South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball.
DALBEC
Dalbec’s third home run of the season broke a 3-all tie that the Crawdads (40-53, 13-10 second half) had gained by scoring three runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Despite losing, Hickory holds onto the lead in the SAL’s Northern Division, by a half-game, over idle Hagerstown (Md.).
Greenville (52-39, 11-11) is in fourth place in the Southern Division, five games back of Charleston, W. Va.
The Crawdads and Drive have two more games in this series, on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. and on Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Hickory scored three runs in its seventh-inning at-bat, an inning that include Drive pitchers throwing four wild pitches.
Alex Kowalczyk led off the seventh for the Crawdads with a walk. He was on third after two wild pitches and Anderson Tejeda singled for a run. After a wild pitch scored a second run, Elio Castillo’s single tied it at 3.
Tejeda, Charles Leblanc and Blaine Prescott each had two hits to lead Hickory, which had eight.
Tyler Hill and Steven Reveles each went 2-for-4 for the Drive, which had seven hits.
Dalbec got to the plate in the game-deciding seventh inning after Lorenzo Cedrola was hit by a pitch, Santiago Espinal singled, Tyler Hill singled and the Crawdads threw out a runner to keep the game at 3-3. Dalbec then hit his grand slam.
Matthew Gorst (5-3) got a win for Greenville, going 2 1/3 innings. He allowed two hits, one run (earned), walked two and struck out three.
Reliever Joseph Kuzia (1-1) went 2 1/3 innings and took the loss for Hickory after he gave up five hits, five runs (all earned). He walked none and struck out one.
The game drew 5,403 fans and took three hours, five minutes to complete.
The loss was the third in four games for the Crawdads, who have a seven-game homestand once they complete the series in Greenville.
After being off on Tuesday, Hickory starts a series with Asheville on Wednesday night. After three games with the Tourists, the Drive comes to Hickory for a four-game series.
Click on the link below for Saturday’s boxscore.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_07_15_hicafx_capafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448