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HICKORY – Ya win one, ya lose one.
CURRENT HOMESTAND
Sunday, 5 p.m. — Lexington, Ky.
Monday, 7 p.m. — Greensboro
Tuesday, 7 p.m. — Greensboro
Wednesday, noon — Greensboro
That was the Hickory Crawdads’ day on Saturday, as they won the opener of a doubleheader over Lexington (Ky.) 3-1 before the Legends won the nightcap 9-3 at L.P. Frans Stadium.
Hickory (50-62, 23-19 second half) and Lexington (54-56, 20-21) close their South Atlantic League (SAL) series at 5 p.m. on Sunday, and the Crawdads are tied for the Northern Division lead with Hagerstown (Md.).
Hagerstown is 22-18 in the second half after winning 2-1 on Saturday night at Lakewood (N.J.) in a tight race that includes Greensboro (21-19, one game behind), West Virginia (21-21, two games back) and Delmarva (Md.) (20-21, 2 ½ games back).
Crawdads 3, Legends 1: There were nine hits on Saturday in the opener – five by Lexington and four by Hickory – and Andretty Cordero and Eric Jenkins had the key ones for the Crawdads.
CORDERO
Jenkins’ two-out single in the fifth inning scored, and Cordero hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning, his third of the season, after Leody Taveras walked.
Gabriel Cancel’s solo home run in the fourth inning (his 13th) scored the only Legends run.
Dario Beltre (1-0) got a pitching win for Hickory, throwing 2 2/3 innings, giving up two hits and striking out three in relief of starter A.J. Alexy, who went four innings. C.D. Pelham faced a batter in the ninth and struck him out to gain his seventh save of the season.
Legends 9, Crawdads 3: A six-run ninth inning gained Lexington a split, powered by a grand slam in that inning by Angelo Castellano. It was his seventh home run of the season.
Manny Olloque and Marten Gasparini each went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Lexington.
Cordero and Jenkins each had two hits for the Crawdads and their runs were driven in by Alex Kowalczyk, Franklin Rollin and Jenkins.
Matthew Wynne (3-2) picked up a win in a three-hour game before 3,525. He pitched three innings, allowing two hits, a run (earned) with two walks and no strikeouts. Starter Travis Eckert went six innings – walking four and striking out five – and gave up two runs.
Reliever Kaleb Fontenot (5-3) worked 3 1/3 innings in a loss, giving up four hits, five runs (four earned), walking one and striking out four.
Edgar Arrendono started for Hickory and struck out seven in five innings.
Upcoming games: After Sunday’s game with Lexington, the Crawdads play three more at home. They face Greensboro on Monday and Tuesday night at 7 p.m. and close that series on Wednesday at noon.
On Thursday through next Sunday, the Crawdads are at Columbia (S.C.). They’ll follow with Aug. 14 off and then face Hagerstown in Hickory on Aug. 15-17.
For Saturday’s boxscores, click the links below.
Game 1
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_05_lexafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&sid=t448
Game 2
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_08_05_lexafx_hicafx_2&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448