HobbsDailyReport.com
GREENSBORO – Solid pitching on Wednesday led the Hickory Crawdads to a sweep of a South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball doubleheader over Greensboro on the road.
The Crawdads won the first game — a makeup after Tuesday’s game was rained out – 4-1 and then won the second game 3-2.
The Crawdads’ Sal Mendez and C.D. Pelham combined to six-hit the Grasshoppers (35-29) in the opening game, which also featured the Crawdads scoring all their runs in the fifth inning.
Hickory (28-9) had six hits, with Jose Almonte hitting his fifth home run of the season in the fifth inning. He has five home runs this season.
Mendez (4-3) pitched five innings to gain a win, allowing five hits, one run (earned) with three walks and seven strikeouts. Pelham gained his second save of the season. He threw two innings, allowing one hit and striking out three.
In the second game, the Crawdads’ Edgar Arredondo (3-3) and Nick Dignacco combined to limit the Grasshoppers to four hits.
Arredondo went 5 2/3 innings, giving up four hits, two runs (one earned) with no walks and five strikeouts. Dignacco, gaining his first save of the season, went 1 1/3 innings and got all four outs by strikeout.
A crowd of 3,764 saw Hickory win via the long ball, as Ti’Quan Forbes and Alex Kowalczyk each hit a home run.
Forbes hit his homer with two outs in the fourth inning, his eighth of the season. Kowalczyk’s home run came in the sixth inning, his sixth, and it also came with two out.
Hickory is 10 ½ games behind Northern Division leader Hagerstown (Md.) and plays at Greensboro on Thursday.
Greensboro dropped into third place, 1 ½ games back of Hagerstown, and trails second-place Kannapolis (35-28) by a half-game.
The first-half division races end over the weekend and the SAL All-Star Game is Tuesday night in Columbia, S.C.
For Wednesday’s boxes, click the links below.
To follow the Crawdads, visit Mark Parker’s personal blog – crawdadsbeat.com .
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_06_14_hicafx_gboafx_1&t=g_box&sid=t448
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_06_14_hicafx_gboafx_2&t=g_box&sid=t448