HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – The top of the batting order sparked the Hickory Crawdads to a 7-4 home baseball victory on Wednesday night over Kannapolis.
The first four batters in Hickory’s order combined to go 7-for-16, score four runs and drive in three as the Crawdads prevailed before a crowd of 1,125 at L.P. Frans Stadium.
Hickory has won three straight games, all at home, heading into a series finale on Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Kannapolis.
The Crawdads have won three straight games and can complete a series sweep of Kannapolis with a victory on Thursday night at L.P. Frans Stadium (7 p.m.)
On Wednesday night, Hickory leadoff hitter Blaine Prescott went 2-for-5 and hit his fifth home run of the season in the first inning. No. 2 hitter Brallan Perez — who rejoined the Crawdads on Wednesday from Class A Advanced Kinston — went 2-for-5, and Leody Taverus, batting third, had two doubles.
Eric Jenkins, batting ninth for Hickory, added two hits and drove in two runs as the Crawdads improved to 36-48 overall. They’re 9-5 in the second half and tied for second place with Delmarva (Md.) in the South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division, 1 ½ games back of division-leading Hagerstown (Md.).
Delmarva visits Hickory for a four-game series that begins on Friday night at Frans Stadium.
The Crawdads outhit the Intimidators 13-10, and Kannapolis (43-39, 4-10 second half, last in the Northern Division) made three errors.
Brandon Dulin and Aaron Schnurbusch each had two hits for Kannapolis, and Micker Adolfo hit a home run in the third inning – his 11th of the year – and Antonio Rodriquez homered in the third inning (his third of the season).
Edgar Arrendo (5-3) picked up a win for Hickory, pitching 6 2/3 innings. He gave up six hits, three runs (all earned), walked none and struck out seven. Reliever C.D. Pelham got one out, on a strikeout , to gain his third save.
Kannapolis starter Blake Hickman (1-3) took the loss. He went five innings, giving up 11 hits, six runs (all earned), and he walked none and struck out three.
Click on the link below for Wednesday’s boxscore and visits www.hickorycrawdads.com for game times for the rest of the week, promotions and additional information.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_07_05_kanafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448