HobbsDailyReport.com
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Hickory Crawdads blew a lead — with Charleston (S.C.) scoring seven runs in the eighth inning on Thursday night and winning 10-5 – to leave three teams tied for first place in the South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division heading to the final weekend of regular-season play.
REMAINING GAMES
Friday, 7 p.m.: Greensboro
Saturday, 7 p.m.: Greensboro
Sunday, 5 p.m.: Greensboro
Monday, 1 p.m.: Greensboro
Hickory (63-73, 36-30 second half) shares first place with Greensboro, 35-29 after a 4-0 win over Kannapolis on Thursday, and with West Virginia (36-30) after Lakewood (N.J.) nipped the Power 3-2 on Thursday.
Greensboro begins a four-game series at Hickory on Friday night at 7 p.m., and plays the Crawdads at L.P. Frans Stadium at 7 p.m. on Saturday, 5 p.m. on Sunday and at 1 p.m. on Monday.
Charleston (75-60, first place in Southern Division) had 12 hits, with Oswaldo Carbera going 3-for-3 and Dermis Garcia hitting a key home run.
Hickory had a 3-0 lead through three innings on Thursday night before the RiverDogs tied it 3-all with two runs in the seventh inning and exploded for seven runs in the next inning.
With the Crawdads ahead 4-3 after scoring a run in the top of the eighth inning, Charleston got hot in the bottom of the inning. After walks to Brandon Wagner and Isiah Gilliam, Garcia hit a three-run home run (his eighth of the season). An error scored another run and Wagner doubled in two more.
Hickory had eight hits, three by Alex Kowalczyk and two by Eric Jenkins and Andretty Cordero had a two-run double.
Reliever Luis Cedeno (6-0) pitched an inning, giving up two hits and an unearned run, to gain a win for the RiverDogs.
Jacob Lemoine (3-4) blew a save and took the loss. He threw an inning, gave up two hits, four runs (three earned) and walked three.
A crowd of 5,537 watched as the Crawdads left 11 men on base.
If Greensboro and Hickory tied for the second-half title, Greensboro will win the Northern Division on winning percentage (it has two rained out games that will not be made up).
Should Hickory tie West Virginia, a playoff game would be played Monday – site to be determined – to net a second-half division winner.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_31_hicafx_crdafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448