The Hickory Crawdads moved closer to a first-half Northern Division title in the South Atlantic League with a 10-2 rout of the Charleston (S.C.) RiverDogs in front of 2,552 fans at L.P. Frans Stadium on Friday night.
The win was Hickory's fifth straight and the 12th in 14 games, while Charleston has lost five straight and 16 of 19.
Hickory (39-27) and Greensboro – a 5-2 winner over Kannapolis on Friday -- remain in a virtual tie atop the Northern Division, with the Crawdads ahead of the Grasshoppers by .003 percentage points.
A win by Hickory and a loss by Greensboro (40-28) on Saturday would guarantee the Crawdads a first-half title. A tie in the final standings would favor Hickory because of a better winning percentage.
Friday night's win by Hickory essentially eliminates the Hagerstown (Md.) Suns from the first-half chase. The Suns could still tie Hickory in the standings, but the Crawdads would win a tiebreaker with the Suns.
The recipe for success against the RiverDogs was similar to Thursday’s game against them for the Crawdads. One night after Hickory starter Luke Jackson struck out nine of the first 12 RiverDogs, Cody Buckel (3-2) fanned six in the first two innings. Buckel finished with eight strikeouts in five innings and allowed one run, a third-inning home run by Kelvin De Leon in the third.
“The first couple of innings everything was working,” said Buckel, who turns 19 on Saturday. “Everything I was throwing I was throwing for a strike and I was getting ahead early and putting guys away when I needed to.
Hickory scored quickly in the first off RiverDogs’ starter Richard Martinez (0-2), who was pressed into service due to an injury to expected starter Jose Ramirez. With one out, Odubel Herrera doubled and Tomas Telis followed with a towering shot to right for a two-run homer, his seventh of the season.
After De Leon’s blast cut the lead in half, Hickory added two more in the fourth with the help of a misplay by the RiverDogs.
Telis blooped a single to center to start the inning. One out later, Andrew Clark lined a single to center and Josh Richmond walked to load the bases.
The next batter, Jake Skole, hit a bouncer to the RiverDogs’ Jeff Farnham near first base. Rather than stepping on the bag for the sure out, Farnham tried to cut down the lead runner at the plate. Catcher J.R. Murphy caught the ball off the plate, then rather than step on home, he tried to tag Telis, who slid under the tag for the run.
Alejandro Selen followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Crawdads a 4-1 lead.
The Crawdads broke the game open with a six-run fifth inning with Kellin Deglan capping the inning with a two-run double.
“(Tomas) squared that ball up and then they got the homer, then we came right back,” said Hickory manager Bill Richardson. “We’re playing complete baseball. We’re taking care of the baseball; we’re throwing strikes and we’re scrapping our runs.”
Charleston (25-43) added a run in the sixth on a homer by Rob Segedin (3-for-4) for the final margin.
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