The Crawdads hold a half-game lead over Hagerstown (Md.) in the South Atlantic League’s Northern Division after winning a noon game at home on Monday. Hagerstown (Md.) can regain the top spot if it wins on Monday night at Kannapolis.
HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – The Hickory Crawdads left the field on Monday afternoon alone in first place.
Edging visiting Delmarva (Md.) 2-1 in a noon start at L.P. Frans Stadium, the Crawdads (39-50, 12-7 second half) moved atop the South Atlantic League (SAL) Northern Division standings.
Hickory is a half-game up on Hagerstown (Md.), which has a 10-6 record heading into a 7:05 p.m. game on Monday night at Kannapolis. The Crawdads’ lead is a half-game.
Hickory closed its homestand with a victory despite having only three hits, primarily because of solid pitching by starter Walker Weickel and closer Christian Torres.
Weickel threw seven innings, giving up five hits, a run (earned) with one walk and six strikeouts, while Torres pitched the final two innings and struck out three.
TORRES
Torres, who has allowed one earned run in his last six appearances, protected the Crawdads’ 2-1 when he got two swinging third strikes, sandwiched around a groundball out, to close out the victory before 1,625 fans.
Franklin Rollin, Charles Leblanc and Ellio Castillo each had a hit for the Crawdads, who have won six of their last eight games.
Delmarva had five hits but no one with more than one.
The Shorebirds (39-48, 10-9) grabbed a 1-0 lead with a run in the fifth inning. Collin Woody was hit by a pitch, took second on a wild pitched and – after two strikeouts by Weickel – Frank Crinella drove in a run.
The Crawdads gained the lead with a two-run eighth inning. Yohel Pozo was hit by a pitch and Brallan Perez advanced him with a sacrifice bunt before Castillo’s single scored a run. After Eric Jenkins walked, the Shorebirds brought in reliever Matt Trowbridge, who gave up a run-scoring ground out by Prescott that left Hickory ahead 2-1.
Trowbridge (1-3) took the loss, giving up a hit, two runs (both earned), walking one and striking out one in 1 1/3 innings. Delmarva starter Alex Wells went six innings, giving up two hits, and he struck out four.
The Crawdads are off on Tuesday and then open six-game road trip by playing at Asheville at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday. Games are scheduled there also on Thursday and Friday with 7:05 p.m. starts.
After the Asheville series, Hickory is at Greenville, S.C. for three games. The first one is Saturday at 7:05 p.m., the teams play Sunday at 4:05 p.m., and they close the series next Monday at 11:05 a.m.
Click on the link below for Monday’s boxscore.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2017_07_10_delafx_hicafx_1&t=g_box&did=milb&sid=t448