HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Charles Leblanc homered for the first time this season and second time in the minor leagues on Tuesday night, leading Hickory past Greenville (S.C.) 3-1 in South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball.
LEBLANC
Leblanc – who led the ACC in hitting (.405) as a college senior at Pitt — hit a solo home run in the sixth inning as the Crawdads closed a series by winning before a crowd just shy of 2,000 at L.P. Frans Stadium.
A fourth-round draft pick in 2016 by the Texas Rangers, he is hitting .303 in his last 10 games. His only other pro home run came last season at Spokane, Wash., where he had 228 at bats (one homer per 176.5 at bats).
Hickory improved to 44-58 overall heading into a road trip that will begin on Thursday night in Lakewood, N.J. The Crawdads are 17-15 in the second half, a game back of second-place Hagerstown (Md.), 2 ½ back of Northern Division leader Delmarva (Md.) and a half-game up on fourth-place West Virgina.
CURRENT ROAD TRIP
Thursday-Sunday: all games at 7:05 p.m. except Sunday, 1:05 p.m.
Monday through Aug. 2: at Hagerstown, Md., first two games at 7:05 p.m., next Wednesday game at 10:35 a.m.
Delmarva beat Rome (Ga.) 2-1 on Tuesday night while Hagerstown downed Augusta (Ga.) 6-4 and West Virginia won 7-3 over Lexington (Ky.).
The Crawdads go on the road, where they are 21-28, to face first Lakewood and then Hagerstown.
On Tuesday night, solid pitching from Christian Torres, Kaleb Fontenot and C.D. Pelham played a key role in the Crawdads’ win.
Torres (2-2) got a win, going five innings. He allowed one hit and struck out three before Fontenot threw three innings (two hits, one unearned run, one walk, three strikeouts) and Pelham closed, allowing a hit over an inning to gain his sixth save of the season.
Hickory limited Greenville (56-44, 15-16) to four hits – two by Bobby Dalbec and one each by Rolandi Baldwin and Steven Reveles.
The Crawdads scored in the first inning on a single by Andretty Cordero that drove in Eric Jenkins, who had reached on an error.
Hickory scored again in the fifth inning when Blaine Prescott led off with a double and later scored on a single by Cordero.
Leblanc’s home run came in the sixth inning — a drive to left field off reliever Daniel Gonzalez leading off — for a 3-0 lead by Hickory.
Gonzalez relieved Drive starter Bryan Mata (3-3), who took the loss. He pitched five innings, giving up five hits, two runs (one earned) with one walk and six strikeouts.
Greenville closed within 2-1 with a run in the seventh on a ground ball out by Mitchell Gunsolus, scoring Dalbec (singled leading off the inning).
For Tuesday’s boxscore, click the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_07_25_capafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448