HobbsDailyReport.com
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Kyle Cody isn’t cooling off.
Cody had another strong start on Sunday for the Hickory Crawdads as they nipped Greenville (S.C.) 3-1 to stay in first place in South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division baseball.
CODY
Backed by home runs by Alex Kowalczyk and Franklin Rollin, Cody (5-6) picked up a win after going six innings, allowing four hits, no runs, walking two and striking out eight. He’s 5-2 with an ERA of 2.40 with 20 walks and 65 strikeouts over his last 10 appearances.
Winning before a crowd of 4,981, the Crawdads (41-53, 14-10 second half) opened a one-game lead over both Hagerstown (Md.) and Greensboro in the Northern Division race. The Suns fell into a tie with the Grasshoppers after splitting a doubleheader at Lexington (Ky.) on Sunday.
Hickory closes its series at Greenville on Monday at 11:05 a.m., has Tuesday off and begins at homestand against Asheville on Wednesday night at L.P. Frans Stadium.
The Crawdads collected 12 hits on Sunday, getting two each from Brallan Perez, Leody Taveras, Ricardo Valencia and Rollin.
Isaias Lucema led the Drive (52-40, 11-12 second half) by going 3-for-4. Lorenzo Cedrola added two hits — one a double — and Tyler Hill drove in Greenville’s run with an RBI single.
Hickory went up 2-0 with two runs in the second inning when Kowalczyk hit a solo home run, his eighth of the season, and Rollin singled, stole second and scored on a hit by Elio Castillo.
Rollin hit a solo home run in the eighth inning to extend the Crawdads’ lead to 3-0.
Kaleb Fontenot and C.D. Pelham followed Cody to the mound and kept the Drive in check. Fontenot threw an inning, giving up three hits and an earned run, and Pelham gained his fifth save after going two innings (two hits, no runs, one strikeout, strikes on 14 of his 19 pitches).
Up two runs in the ninth inning, Hickory got a fly ball out and pulled a double play to end the game.
Jay Groome (1-2) took the loss as Greenville’s starter. He worked five innings, gave up seven hit, two runs (both earned), walked one and struck out seven.
Click the link below for Sunday’s boxscore.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_07_16_hicafx_capafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448