HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – The Crawdads flirted with a no-hitter on Thursday night in a 3-0 home victory over the Hagerstown (Md.) Suns.
MATUELLA
Michael Matuella didn’t allow a hit for five innings, and the Suns were hitless until Blake Perkins led off the eighth inning off reliever Kaleb Fontenot. The other hit was a leadoff single in the ninth inning by Nick Banks against C.D. Pelham.
The victory kept Hickory (59-64, 32-21 second half) in first place in the South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division. The Crawdads are three games up on the Suns (28-23), Greensboro (28-23) and four up on West Virginia (28-25).
Hickory begins a four-game series at Greensboro on Friday night.
Matuella (4-6) threw five innings, walking five and striking out one, and Fontenot pitched two innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and struck out one.
Pelham, who threw two innings, picked up his 10th save of the season. He gave up one hit and struck out four.
Hickory scored a run in the third inning on a single by Andretty Cordero and twice in the fourth inning on Yohel Pozo’s home run (his second of the year) and a single by Brendon Davis.
For Thursday’s boxscore, click the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_17_hagafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&sid=t448