HobbsDailyReport.com
KANNAPOLIS – Jumping to an early five-run lead, the Hickory Crawdads then rode strong pitching to a 7-2 victory over Kannapolis on the road on Tuesday night in South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball.
Kyle Cody, C.D. Pelham and Kaleb Fontenot combined to limit the Intimidators (43-31, 4-2 second half) to five hits.
Carlos Garay went 3-for-5, Tanner Gardner doubled twice, Ricardo Valencia had two hits and two RBIs and Yeyson Yrizzari hit a home run, his fourth, for the Crawdads (30-46, 4-4).
CODY
Hickory closes the series at Kannapolis with a 7 p.m. game on Thursday night before going to West Virginia to begin a series on Friday against the Power.
At Kannapolis, the Crawdads had a 3-1 lead after two innings and stretched that to 6-1 in the third inning. Leody Taveras, Garay and Alex Kowalczyk had consecutive singles with Kowalczyk’s driving in a run to make it 4-1. Valencia, who made the SAL All-Star Game, then had a two-run single and Hickory led 6-1.
Yrizarri homered in the fourth, a solo shot, for the Crawdads.
After Hickory led 7-2, there was no scoring over the final five innings.
Cody (3-6) kept Kannapolis in check over five innings, giving up five hits, four runs (two earned) with two walks and nine strikeouts. Pelham threw three innings and Fontenot closed with one inning for Hickory.
Kannapolis’ hits were two by Zach Remillard, one a triple, plus those by Luis Gonzalez, Grant Massey and Tyler Sulivan.
The Crawdads got to Kannapolis starter Yosmer Solorzano (2-6) early. He went 3 2/3 innings, giving up eight hits, seven runs (all earned).
The loss dropped the Intimidators out of a first-place tie in the Northern Division, as Hagerstown (Md.) moved into first at 5-1 with Delmarva (Md.) and Kannapolis a game back at 4-2 each.
Click the link below for Tuesday’s boxscore.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_06_27_hicafx_kanafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448