A quartet of pitchers backed an early lead as the Hickory Crawdads edged the Lynchburg Hillcats 3-2 Thursday night at Bank of the James Stadium in Lynchburg, Va.
The victory was the second straight for the visitors and placed the Crawdads (46-36 overall, 13-4 second half) at 10 over .500 overall for the first time this season.
It was another evening during the season in which the Crawdads’ pitching staff limited the opposing lineup. Lynchburg (49-34, 8-9) had just five hits, only three of those coming after it scored both its runs in the first.
Nick Mitchell led the inning with a single, stole second and moved to third on catcher Ben Hartl’s throwing error. Welbyn Francisca’s sacrifice fly scored Mitchell for the lead just two batters into the inning.
After two outs, Crawdads starting pitching Enrique Segura hit Luis Merejo with a pitch and walked Ryan Cesarini. Yaikel Mijares singled home Merejo for the second run.
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And that turned out to be the last hurrah for the Hillcats, as Segura set down the final 11 hitters he faced before leaving with one out in the fifth due to a limited pitch count.
Brock Porter had the most trouble, giving up two hits and walking three. However, the righty struck out four over 1.1 innings.
William Privette entered with two on in the sixth, but struck out Jose Pirela to escape the jam, then pitched a perfect seventh inning.
Luke Savage had a clean eighth. He gave up a leadoff single in the ninth but induced a double play ball before finishing off his sixth save of the season. Porter (5-1) received the scorer’s decision victory.
The group of four struck out 12, which increased the Crawdads’ Carolina League high to 831 for the season, 51 more than Delmarva, currently the runner-up in strikeouts.
Hickory also leads the league in opposing batting average (.212) and WHIP (Walk + hits per inning) at 1.26.
After Lynchburg took the early lead, Hickory punched back for all three runs in the second. Hartl atoned for his error in the first with his first homer of the season. Yeremy Cabrera followed Hartl’s blast with a walk and stole second. Wady Mendez singled him in to tie the game at 2-2. Esteban Mejia’s RBI single scored Mendez for what turned out to be the game’s final run.
Braylan Doughty surrendered all three runs and took the loss (0-6).
Hickory 6, Lynchburg 4, Tuesday:
On Tuesday, the Crawdads gave away a lead in the ninth inning but took the game back with two runs in the 10th to defeat Lynchburg 6-4.
It looked like Hickory had all the momentum after reliever Michael Trausch worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, then stranded two runners in the eighth. However, a soft single and a walk by Trausch to Jose Pirela put the Hillcats in business with one out in the ninth.
Jesus Gamez replaced Trausch but increased the mess with a walk to Nick Mitchell. Gamez continued to struggle with control, as he hit Welbyn Francisca to force in a run. Bases-loaded walks to Jeffrey Mercedes and Luis Morejo tied the score at 4-4 and forced extra innings.
The Hillcats repaid the Hickory generosity in the 10th. With Hector Osorio placed at second to start extra innings, Ben Hartl reached on an error, which moved Osorio to third.
Cabrera hit into a force play that allowed Osorio to score the go-ahead run. A balk by Eudry Alcantara moved Cabrera to second before the speedy outfielder stole third. One out later, Torres singled in Cabrera with the insurance run that gave the Crawdads a 6-4 lead.
