HobbsDailyReport.com
DELMARVA, Md. – Charles Leblanc drove in three runs — and all nine hitters in the Hickory lineup had at least one hit — in a 6-0 victory over Delmarva (Md.), as the Crawdads moved into first place alone again on Thursday night.
Hickory (62-68, 35-25 second half) opened a one-game lead on Greensboro (33-25) after Kannapolis beat the Grasshoppers 6-5 in 11 innings on Thursday night in Kannapolis.
LEBLANC
The Crawdads now head home to play Columbia (S.C.) holding that one-game edge, and West Virginia (32-28) is three games back.
There are 10 games left in the South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division race. Hickory has three at home versus Columbia S.C. – Friday through Sunday – and plays at Charleston (S.C.) on Tuesday through Thursday before closing at home Sept. 1-4 against Greensboro.
Leblanc led a 10-hit attack with three RBIs and Yohel Pozo, Andretty Cordero and Franklin Rollin each drove in a run for the Crawdads, who won their second straight and for the third time in four games.
Pozo, a night after going 5-for-5, had two hits.
Hickory gained a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Anderson Tejeda and Pozo singled before Cordero’s run-scoring single and an RBI sacrifice fly by Rollin.
The Crawdads extended their lead to 3-0 in the sixth, scoring after Alex Kowalczky singled, moved up on a passed ball and scored on Pozo’s single.
Blaine Prescott doubled and Leody Taveras singled in the seventh inning and LeBlanc’s sacrifice fly scored a run.
In the ninth, LeBlanc had a two-out, two-run single to close the scoring.
Mileton Ramos had two of the six hits by the Shorebirds (55-72, 26-33).
A.J. Alexy (1-1) got a win after throwing six innngs for Hickory. He gave up two hits, no runs, walked one and struck out eight. Christian Torres grabbed his fifth save of the season, working three innings and striking out two.
Delmarva starter Travis Seabrooke (3-8) took the loss, giving up eight hits over seven innings. He allowed four runs (three earned), walked three and struck out four.
A crowd of 5,074 watched a game that was over in just shy of 2 ½ hours and played in 79-degree weather.
For Thursday night’s boxscore, click on the link below.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_24_hicafx_delafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448