The Hickory Crawdads have had their best success this season when creating havoc on the bases.
On Friday night, that’s what lit the fuse as the Crawdads came from five runs down to beat visiting West Virginia 7-5 before 2,552 fans at L.P. Frans Stadium.
Hickory, 41-29 overall, evened its second-half South Atlantic League record at 1-1 by winning and plays the Power (36-34, 1-1) on Saturday night at 7 p.m. and in a series finale on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Down 5-4 on Friday night, Hickory scored three runs in the decisive seventh inning off reliever Brooks Pounders (5-2) and won with the help of some shoddy defense by West Virginia.
Jake Skole starting things in the seventh with a bunt single. An out later, Skole stole second base and he took third on a throwing error by catcher Elias Diaz.
Pounders then walked Jonathan Roof before trying to pick Roof off first. The throw got away from first baseman Justin Howard, who was charged with the error, with Skole scoring and Roof reaching second.
After Jurickson Profar was hit by a pitch, Roof and Profar pulled off a double steal. The throw from Diaz to third skipped away, allowing Roof to score, and Tomas Telis scored Profar on a double to the wall.
“I thought the timing on our base stealing was pretty good today,” said Crawdads manager Bill Richardson, whose team had five steals. “They’re green light steals.
“They’re not called from the corner, so the players deserve all the credit.”
West Virginia starting pitcher Tyler Waldron dominated the first four innings. He retired the first 12 hitters –seven on grounders —before giving up an infield hit to Christian Villanueva to start the fifth.
With Andrew Clark batting, Villanueva attempted to steal second. With shortstop Andy Vazquez covering second, Clark steered a single through the vacated hole to move Villanueva to third. Villanueva then scored on Josh Richmond’s single and Roof added a two-run single.
“(Waldron) did a great job those first four innings,” said Roof. “In that fifth inning (Villanueva) started off with that single. That was big to get our first hit and then Clark moved him first to third.
“That got our momentum going. Once that happened, we knew we were going to bust through.”
The Power went up 2-0 against Hickory starter Luke Jackson on a two-single in the first by Cole White and added three more runs in the third on a three-run homer by Reglio Noris.
Jackson left with one out in the fourth, having allowed five hits and four walks.
A trio of Hickory relievers-- Ben Rowen, Jimmy Reyes and Ryan Rodabaugh -- retired 17 of the last 20 hitters to keep the game close. Reyes earned the win (2-0), allowing one hit over 2 1/3 innings.
“Ben and I did a great job of getting ahead of the count and forcing them to make contact early,” said Reyes. “That got us back in the dugout and gave us a chance to score some runs.”
Rodebaugh pitched a scoreless ninth for his 11th save.
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