HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Every Crawdads batter in the lineup punished the Greensboro Grasshoppers in some way on Wednesday in an 8-1 middle-of-the-day South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball victory at L.P. Frans Stadium.
PRESCOTT
Seven of the nine Crawdads had at least two hits – they had 19 – and the only player without a hit, No. 8 hitter Brendan Davis, walked twice and scored two runs – in a victory that kept Hickory tied for first place in the Northern Division.
The Crawdads (53-63, 25-19) remain tied for the division lead with Hagerstown (Md.), now 25-19 in the second half after beating Delmarva (Md.) 3-2 on Wednesday.
West Virginia beat Lakewood (N.J.) 8-5 and at 25-21 is a game back of the Crawdads and the Suns. Greensboro (60-52, 23-21) is in fourth place, two games back of the leaders.
The Crawdads start a road trip on Thursday, playing the first of four games in Columbia, S.C., with a 7:05 p.m. start.
Hickory rocked Greensboro starter Michael King (9-7) from the get-go on Wednesday. He pitched four innings, giving up 12 hits, five runs (all earned) with a walk and two strikeouts.
POZO
Leadoff hitter Blaine Prescott had four hits for Hickory and drove in four runs, and No. 2 hitter Leody Tavaras went 3-for-5 with a double. Andretty Cordero and Alex Kowalczyk added two hits each, Yohel Pozo had two doubles and three hits batting fifth in the order and Anderson Tejeda drove in a run and had two hits.
Hickory starter Michael Matuella, throwing 90 pitches over five innings, kept the Grasshoppers in check. He gave up eight hits, one run (earned), walked one and struck out six before Kaleb Fontenot and Dario Beltre each pitched two innings of relief for Hickory.
Four Grasshoppers – Brian Miller, Trenton Hill, Jarrett Rindfleisch and Rony Cabera – each had two hits.
Hickory went up 3-0 in the second inning when Pozo doubled, Charles Leblanc singled and, with one out, Davis walked. That was followed by an RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Rollin and Prescott’s two-run single.
Up 5-1 heading into the seventh inning, the Crawdads again scored three runs, all with two outs. Tejeda singled and stole second, Davis walked and Rollin doubled in two runs. Prescott’s run-scoring single made it 8-1.
Played in 76-degree weather, Wednesday’s noon start game drew 1,625 fans and took just two minutes shy of three hours to complete.
For Wednesday’s boxscore, click the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_09_gboafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&sid=t448