HobbsDailyReport.com
DELMARVA, Md. – Yohel Pozo went 5-for-5, Blaine Prescott drove in three runs and Anderson Tejeda homered on Wednesday night to lead visiting Hickory past Delmarva (Md.) 9-8.
POZO
The win kept the Crawdads (61-68, 34-25 second half) in a tie for first place with Greensboro (33-24) in a battle for a South Atlantic League (SAL) baseball Northern Division second-half crown.
Greensboro downed Kannapolis 9-3 with a seven-run second inning on Wednesday night in Kannapolis. West Virginia is in third place (31-28), three games back, after beating Charleston (S.C.) 7-0 on Wednesday night.
Hickory plays the Shorebirds (55-71, 26-32, sixth place in Northern Division) again on Thursday night (7:05 p.m.) then comes home for a three-game series against Columbia (S.C.) that begins on Friday night.
The Crawdads had 15 hits in Wednesday’s win before 2,963 in 76-degree temperatures — led by Pozo with five, Tejeda with three and Prescott and Eric Jenkins with two each. Both of Jenkins’ hits were triples.
Cole Billingsley had three of the Shorebirds’ 13 hits and Ryan McKenna went 3-for-5 with a home run and drove in four runs. Milton Ramas added two hits and a solo home run.
Tejeda hit his home in the sixth, a solo shot that was his eighth of the year.
Ramos hit a solo shot in the eighth inning for Delmarva (his second of the season) and McKenna hit his seventh of the season in the ninth inning, a two-run shot.
Reliever Jacob Lemoine picked up a win for the Crawdads, walking two and striking out four, and C.D. Pelham worked two-thirds of an inning to gain his 12th save of the season.
Lucas Humpal (7-11), the Shorebirds’ starter, took the loss. He pitched five innings, allowing 10 hits, six runs (all earned), walking three and striking out five.
For Wednesday’s boxscore, click the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_23_hicafx_delafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448