Crawdads well behind Pelicans as end of season approaches
Entering a four-day break that coincided with Major League Baseball’s All-Star festivities in mid-July, the Hickory Crawdads had the best second-half record among the 12 teams in the Single-A Carolina League at 16-5.
The Crawdads have been unable to sustain that success, though, as they are 14-21 in the 35 games they have played since returning to action on July 18. Ahead of Thursday’s late road game against the Columbia (S.C.) Fireflies, Hickory’s record was 63-58 overall and 30-26 in the second half, 9 1/2 games behind the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Pelicans for the top spot in the South Division’s second-half standings and tied with the Charleston (S.C.) RiverDogs for second place with only 10 games remaining.
Hickory was 3-3 in contests played between Aug. 21-27, including home victories over the Lynchburg (Va.) Hillcats on Aug. 21 (10-2), Aug. 23 (8-1), and last Sunday (9-8). Meanwhile, the Crawdads’ losses were by a 6-4 final against the Hillcats on Aug. 22, by an 11-2 score against the Fireflies on Tuesday, and by a 12-3 final against Columbia on Wednesday.
Relief pitcher Owen Proksch, who made his professional debut with the Crawdads on Aug. 17, earned his first win in the aforementioned eight-run triumph four days later. Proksch tossed 1 2/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball with three strikeouts and a walk before giving way to Jormy Nivar, who provided 3 1/3 innings of one-run, two-hit ball with two strikeouts, two walks, and a hit batsman en route to collecting his first save in four Single-A appearances.
Additionally, four Hickory batters recorded multiple hits. Juan Sulbaran had a double, two singles, and an RBI, Braylin Morel finished with a double, two singles, and two runs scored, Paxton Kling notched a triple, a single, and two RBIs, and Paulino Santana registered a triple, a double, an RBI, and two runs scored.
As for the Aug. 23 victory, it saw Crawdads reliever Geury Rodriguez (2 IP, H, 4 K, 2 BB) pick up his first win of the season. Furthermore, Hickory got two doubles, a single, three RBIs, and a run scored from Yolfran Castillo to go with two-hit games from Gavin Fien (triple, single, three RBIs, run) and Marcos Torres (double, single).
Finally, William Privette (3-3) pitched a scoreless, hitless top of the ninth inning with a strikeout and three walks as he collected the win during last Sunday’s game, which ended when Fien scored on a walk-off wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. And at the plate, Torres tallied two singles, an RBI, and a run scored to highlight a nine-hit performance by the Crawdads.
Following Thursday’s game, Hickory was also scheduled to face the Fireflies on Friday, today (Saturday, Aug. 30) at 6:05 p.m., and Sunday at 5:05 p.m. before completing the season with six home games against the RiverDogs beginning on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at L.P. Frans Stadium.
Josh McKinney can be reached at 828-445-8595 or josh@thepaper.media.
