The Hickory Crawdads' gloves betrayed them on Monday night.
Hickory had a season-high five errors in the eighth inning that led to five Charleston runs as the RiverDogs won a South Atlantic League baseball game 7-3 before 2,095 fans.
Reliever Mark Hamburger was touched for five unearned runs in the decisive inning, when the Crawdads (10-7) fell behind by four runs.
Hickory loaded the bases with one out in the ninth but right-hander Jonathan Ortiz came on and pitched out of jam to close the door.
A solo home run by Cristian Santana helped Hickory ignite for three runs in the fifth inning. A groundball out by David Paisano tied it at 2 and the Crawdads went up 3-2 when Leury Garcia, who had reached on an infield single, scored on a wild pitch.
Luke Prihota was the winning pitcher in relief for Charleston (8-10) and Ortiz got a save. Hamburger took the loss despite allowing only one earned run.
Wilfredo Boscan started for Hickory and Brandon Brayboy started for the RiverDogs.
The game was halted after a scoreless first inning. When the teams returned after a 61-minute delay, Brayboy came back for Charleston and Fabrio Castillo pitched for Hickory.
Game 2 of the series is tonight at 7:05 p.m. in Charleston, S.C.
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