HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Colton Welker led Asheville’s 15-hit attack on Sunday as the Tourists edged Hickory 8-6 to close a South Atlantic League (SAL) series at L.P. Frans Stadium.
Welker, hitting third in the Asheville lineup, went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs and Willie Abreu had two hits and hit his fourth home run of the season.
Leadoff hitter Anderson Tejeda had two hits and Alex Kowalczyk and Jose Almonte hit home runs for the Crawdads (19-31).
Asheville (21-27) grabbed a 3-1 lead through three innings and added four runs in the top of the fourth inning for a 7-1 edge. Hickory scored three runs in the bottom of the inning to close within 7-4.
Kowalczyk and Almonte hit their home runs in the fourth inning. It was the sixth of the year for Kowalczky, and Almonte’s was his third of the season.
Asheville used five pitchers in the win with Julian Fernandez getting the win after pitching 1 1/3 innings and J.D. Hammer going one inning for his fifth save.
Crawdads starter Jonathan Hernandez (2-5) took the loss. He went five innings, giving up 10 hits, eight runs (all earned) with one walk and two strikeouts.
Hickory begins a three-game home series against Kannapolis on Monday night at 6 p.m.
Click the line below for Sunday’s complete boxscore and visit Mark Parker’s personal website – crawdadsbeat.com – for more on the Crawdads.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_05_28_ashafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448